Episode?

[jayne lee wilson]

I'm still here (thanks to my cat) to tell you that what you describe as a "bug" (some imprecision there!) is an example of language evolving under pressure of usage - in this case, the use of a website. Who knows what it will do next?

"Cord tetrad" is absurd because it has not been pressured into existence. It has no use.

My cat has slid onto the floor. So it's bedtime.
This delightful thread reminds me of "to see a world in a grain of sand..."

Words are like molecules of meaning that split into atoms of sense.

[Vile Consort]

So you have it on good authority that they discussed what the parts of a concert should be called on the iPlayer and decided "episode" was the word everybody used, do you?

[Vile Consort]

Or are you saying that calling the parts of a concert "episodes" has entered the language because that's what the iPlayer calls them? Do you have evidence of that?

[french frank]

I'm still here (thanks to my cat) to tell you that what you describe as a "bug" (some imprecision there!) is an example of language evolving under pressure of usage - in this case, the use of a website. Who knows what it will do next?

It's more to do with language expediency in a context where this society has no real knowledge or way to describe matters relating to classical music so it picks up a term off the shelf for something it knows nothing about. It is 'nonce usage' - used to meet someone's particular need.

It isn't 'language evolving' because 'episode' doesn't mean what they say it means in any other context than in this one: Radio 3's website. People do not refer to the two parts of a concert as 'episodes' .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I'm doing instrumental teaching, many of my pupils will ask "What song do you want me to do?" I reply that I'm not a singing teacher, but they can sing if they wish. They reply, "Sorry, what tune do you want me to play". There's little doubt that they understand the difference but the power of poor and inept communication by Apple, etc., is so influential.

[MrGongGong]

When I'm doing instrumental teaching, many of my pupils will ask "What song do you want me to do?" I reply that I'm not a singing teacher, but they can sing if they wish. They reply, "Sorry, what tune do you want me to play". There's little doubt that they understand the difference but the power of poor and inept communication by Apple, etc., is so influential.

happens to me also
but i'm not sure that the word "Tune" is always the most useful

for most people in the technologically developed world Music=Song
its a lost battle i'm afraid

(what if it WAS Lieder ohne Worte ?)

language does change , and in music it often changes very fast indeed (and in evidence I present "Rhythm and Blues or R'n'B)

[french frank]

language does change , and in music it often changes very fast indeed (and in evidence I present "Rhythm and Blues or R'n'B)

The culturally important thing is why any particular change occurs, what it signifies.

[MrGongGong]

The culturally important thing is why any particular change occurs, what it signifies.

Indeed
Often our assumptions are misplaced though (see Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" for example)
and the "Barbarians at the gates" view that one sometimes gets is also often an over simplification and a over reaction

music is often "episodic" .......

I recently wrote a "companion piece"

etc

[IRF]

for most people in the technologically developed world Music=Song

When I were a lad it was "Track" (or "cut" if you were really hip). Made sense on vinyl, and to some extent on CD also. Makes no sense to call an MP3 file a "track". So perhaps the word should now be "file".

"After the interval we shall have all four files of the fifth symphony."

It kinda works

[MrGongGong]

I have an aversion to calling everything a "file"
as it reinforces the idea that "the office" is the location for ALL work
a "soundfile" isn't really a "file"
it's just that computers represent it that way visually
there could be many other ways of doing things .........................

[Bryn]

Am I right in blaming the Apple community for calling directories "folders"?

[MrGongGong]

Am I right in blaming the Apple community for calling directories "folders"?

There's a whole heap of cultural assumptions around the ways in which we name technology
on the Amiga computer there was a "workbench"
with a hammer as the image of a "TOOL"



along with the idea that everything belongs to ME (itunes, iplayer,ipod,mydocuments etc etc etc) the model of work
became the "office" because that's where computers were expected to be located and where real "WORK" takes place ............

so instead of having a "bench" with tools
we have a "filing system"
regardless of whether we are doing our accounts or creating a piece of experimental soundart

there are many folks on the edges of music making things that abuse this paradigm (as in Live Coding etc)

[Pabmusic]

...there are many folks on the edges of music making things that abuse this paradigm (as in Live Coding etc)

And there's a sentence that wouldn't have been written - say - 20 years ago!

[IRF]

And there's a sentence that wouldn't have been written - say - 20 years ago!

Written in a place that could not have existed 20 years ago

[Pabmusic]

Written in a place that could not have existed 20 years ago