Pedants' Paradise

[Sir Velo]

Pabs, you could calm yourself with a latte and a panini....

A panini???

You're not one who asks for "paninis" I trust?

[Serial_Apologist]

A panini???

You're not one who asks for "paninis" I trust?

Unlikely - KB being too well-bread.

[LMcD]

Unlikely - KB being too well-bread.

Perhaps she had a strict Naany.

[Serial_Apologist]

Perhaps she had a strict Naany.

...Unleavened, you mean...

[Pulcinella]

Tonight's Performance on 3 website puff: good to see that the intern knows the difference between its and it's (not!).

The finale to the Ulster Orchestra's 2018/19 Season featuring the American/Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor. Concluding the concert, and their season, the orchestra perform Mahler's Symphony No. 5, written at the turn of the 20th Century around 10 years before the composer's death. The work is probably best known for it's 4th movement, a beautiful Adagietto scored for strings and harp. Conducted by the orchestra's Music Director- Rafael Payare

[french frank]

I also react against "reaching a crescendo". It is a present participle, "growing" and as such refers to a process occurring over a period of time not to a point in time.

If it were a present participle, you could not have 'a crescendo' which makes it a noun or verbal noun/gerund (in English). I believe it can be a noun in Italian: I find 'la sua carriera è stata un crescendo di successi'.

Is it tautological to speak of 'a gradual crescendo'? ('The gradual crescendo through the first movement is particularly exciting' The Times). In a very strict sense, even very fast crescendi are gradual.

[gurnemanz]

If it were a present participle, you could not have 'a crescendo' which makes it a noun or verbal noun/gerund (in English). I believe it can be a noun in Italian: I find 'la sua carriera è stata un crescendo di successi'.

Is it tautological to speak of 'a gradual crescendo'? ('The gradual crescendo through the first movement is particularly exciting' The Times). In a very strict sense, even very fast crescendo are gradual.

Advanced pedantry! Not at all sure if I'm on safe ground here but I'll plough on. In referring to "present participle" I was only really thinking about the morphology of how the word is formed - verb stem + ending -endo. Presumably, when added as a marking to a music score "crescendo" is an adverb describing how the music should be played. In time by extension this marking has become also used as a noun derived from this adverb in order to refer to a specific instance of this musical effect. I'll shut up now.

[french frank]

Advanced pedantry! Not at all sure if I'm on safe ground here but I'll plough on. In referring to "present participle" I was only really thinking about the morphology of how the word is formed - verb stem + ending -endo. Presumably, when added as a marking to a music score "crescendo" is an adverb describing how the music should be played. In time by extension this marking has become also used as a noun derived from this adverb in order to refer to a specific instance of this musical effect. I'll shut up now.

Isn't crescendo from the gerund crescendum, with a present participle crescente from crescens/crescentem??

Still, it's getting late and I feel I'm reaching a rallentando here, so I'll shut up too!

[Pabmusic]

Interestingly, the OED has 6 examples ("colloquial (orig. U.S.). The peak of an increase in volume, force, or intensity; a climax. Esp. in to reach a crescendo"), the first from Fitzgerald's Gatsby in 1925, up to the Economist in 1975. But none of these examples has a musical context.

And, of course, language develops through usage...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And, of course, language develops through usage...

Or misusage.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Still, it's getting late and I feel I'm reaching a rallentando here, so I'll shut up too!

[Pabmusic]

Or misusage.

[cloughie]

Or misusage.

...and some of the dubious words added to the dictionary in recent years provide examples of this.

[Serial_Apologist]

I must remember to take a cold shower, the next time I feel a crescendo coming on!

[Pulcinella]

Oliver Soden, in Michael Tippett, The Biography (page 112):

A number of university students, some local but most from Germany and Scandinavia, was recruited by Gardiner to join the miners,.....

Which particular (singular) number would that be?

A shame, as I'd been enjoying reading it up till then.