Re: O membranza, sì cara e fatal...

On Sun, Aug 27, 2000 at 07:04:03PM +0000, Leo Caesius wrote:
[snip]
> Mike Adams wrote:
>     "But, Italian would probably remain distinct for some time.  I see no
> likelihood of Italian dying out any time soon, in a few centuries, who
> knows?  But not any time soon."
>
> to which Raymond Brown replied:
>     "Indeed, why should it?  It is IMHO a very beautiful language; as a
> Latinist, I can understand it, when spoken, far more readily than I can
> understand Spanish."
[snip]
>      So, while Italian is by no means an international auxiliary language,
> it has its uses and has left its imprint.  Even if we were not to judge
> Italian on its many aesthetic and cultural qualities, there would be no
> shortage of reasons for which Italian will continue to thrive (despite the
> goals of Sr. Bossi and his cohort of thugs).
[snip]

To which I would add, (Western) music bears a deep imprint of Italian. I
know there have been trends for composers to use their native language
instead of Italian in music score (sheet music) indications; but every
musician universally understands terms like "allegro", "presto",
"andante", "largo", "lento", ... it may be argued that "newer" music
genres are getting away from this tradition, which is true, but
considering that these terms are being taught worldwide in music classes,
don't expect it to vanish any time soon.


T