Maestros all?

[verismissimo]

I notice that "Maestro Long Yu" is headlined in an advertisement for an Oxford Philharmonic concert at the Sheldonian on 27 February. Is this a first in an ad?

Why are all orchestral conductors called “Maestro” these days? It seems to me that the word now comes with the territory, having previously been common practice in America. How passé Wikipedia’s current definition reads: “A title of extreme respect given to a master musician.” Nowadays that might more truthfully read: “Stands in front of an orchestra, usually able to read a score, waving a stick.”

I don’t mean to disrespect the really outstanding practitioners around. But how do they feel when every Tom, Dick and Harry is apparently a Maestro? I’d love it if we could park the word on an indefinite basis and find another. Conductor maybe?


(BTW there’s a separate issue here for the few female conductors around. Maestra in Italian means schoolmistress.)

[Stanfordian]

I notice that "Maestro Long Yu" is headlined in an advertisement for an Oxford Philharmonic concert at the Sheldonian on 27 February. Is this a first in an ad?

Why are all orchestral conductors called “Maestro” these days? It seems to me that the word now comes with the territory, having previously been common practice in America. How passé Wikipedia’s current definition reads: “A title of extreme respect given to a master musician.” Nowadays that might more truthfully read: “Stands in front of an orchestra, usually able to read a score, waving a stick.”

I don’t mean to disrespect the really outstanding practitioners around. But how do they feel when every Tom, Dick and Harry is apparently a Maestro? I’d love it if we could park the word on an indefinite basis and find another. Conductor maybe?


(BTW there’s a separate issue here for the few female conductors around. Maestra in Italian means schoolmistress.)

Hiya verismissimo,

There are not enough women conductors around for it to be much of an issue. However, in a decade or so I'm confident the predominence of men on the conductor's podium will certainly lessen.

[Alison]

I blame Sean Rafferty and Suzie Klein for a lot of this nonsense.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's one of those overused words, like "hero".

[jean]

"Music, maestro Ponke!"

[Petrushka]

I was under the impression it was just a title rather than an indication of their ability.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was under the impression it was just a title rather than an indication of their ability.

So was I - after all, it only means "Master"; which is the title given to small boys on birthday card envelopes.

[BBMmk2]

So was I - after all, it only means "Master"; which is the title given to small boys on birthday card envelopes.

Times change, unfortunately for the worse.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Another overused word is "student". It used to refer to someone in higher education, but the way things are going, they'll soon have students in playgroups.

[gradus]

Jean, I seem to recall Maestro Ponke et Son Orchestre Fromage.

[ahinton]

I blame Sean Rafferty and Suzie Klein for a lot of this nonsense.

I don't, even if only because it's been going on since long before they became the denizens of R3 that they are!

It must now, for example, be at least 20 years since a certain Italian pianist straight-facedly addressed me with "you should not refer to me as Carlo Grante but as Mæstro Grante" (OK, you could almost see his tongue poking out of his cheek at the time, but...). I replied "no - I'll refer to you as Mister Heifetz (well, Heifetz was a fine pianist, after all)...

[ahinton]

So was I - after all, it only means "Master"; which is the title given to small boys on birthday card envelopes.

Not since the terrible 1950s, surely?!

[ahinton]

Another overused word is "student". It used to refer to someone in higher education, but the way things are going, they'll soon have students in playgroups.

I don't see what's wrong with that in principle, provided that they are studying; people are/were expected to study for their 11+, GCSEs, A levels et al, after all. OK, playgroups are something of an exception since they are not principally educational establishments.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not since the terrible 1950s, surely?!

Possibly - but (as Ronald Stevenson may have mentioned to you) the 1950s didn't reach North-East Lancs until the 1990s.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't see what's wrong with that in principle, provided that they are studying; people are/were expected to study for their 11+, GCSEs, A levels et al, after all. OK, playgroups are something of an exception since they are not principally educational establishments.

Ouch! That raises a lot of questions about what education is.

But I have/had no problem referring to my ... err ... students as "students": far preferable (puns aside) than the horrible word "pupil". (I would happily settle on the late 19th Century Census description "scholar"!)