Re: GDP: What term do you use?

[Kurt Kroon]

On 2008/02/16 12:48 PM, "Kurt Kroon" <address@hidden> wrote:

> I'm working on the Glossary for the GDP, and I'm stuck -- so, I'm canvassing
> the list.

Wow ... it's too bad no one here has any strong opinions on the matter.  So,
since I started the d*mn thread, I have to wrangle it back to its corral.

My original question was:
"You've written a composition with a passage that needs to be played in a
different octave.  When you describe it (this passage) to another musician,
what term do you use?  And do you use the same term or a different one for
the actual _process of writing_ the passage in a different octave (if you
even bother to name the process)?"

Here's what I got:

Dutch:
    octaveren (dank aan Alard)
Finnish:
    Risto, you out there? I don't think anyone else can handle Finnish ....
French:
    octaviation (merci à Valentin)
German:
    Oktavierung (viele Dank an Reinhold)
Italian:
    all'ottava (alta or bassa) (grazie a Andrew)
Spanish:
    a la octava (gracias a Francisco)
Danish, Swedish (and Norwegian):
    oktavering (tackar till Eyolf ... I think, since none of the machine
translators offer any of these languages.)

English -- I haven't decided yet among:
*  octave transposition (thanks to Trevor B., seconded by Anh T., thirded by
Damian)
* ottava spanners (Trevor B., in a follow-up email)
* octave displacement (thanks to David F.)
* all'ottava (David F., in a follow-up)
* ottava passage (thanks to Ralph P.)
* octave indication/indicator (ovtaKieren ... err ... thanks to Kieren)
* setting the octave (I just made that up)

The main points that I'm considering are --

Trevor B.:
"The confusion here must be between the graphic *symbols* for things (like
ottava spanners and clefs) and the musical *effects* of those things (ie,
octave transposition). In general the names of the symbols are probably much
more widely agreed upon than the names of the abstract processes those
symbols effect."

Damian:
"the pragmatic 'what would i look for in the index?' approach is going
to have to arbitrate here"

Except that *I* have to make a decision ... eventually -- and I would
probably search for "(octave OR ottava OR octavation) inurl:v2.1
site:lilypond.org" (using Google)

Kieren:
"Really, what we're talking about is a NOTATIONAL SHORTHAND."

David F.:
"Personally I like the way Groves has side stepped the issue and merely
recorded the standard terms which are in Italian."

So I'm going back to re-read the polemics ... err ... thread.

So ... let me mull things over and come back with what I decide.  If you'd
like to add any last minute comments, please send them directly to me, not
the list.  That way, people who are trying to figure out how to do something
neat in LilyPond won't have to way to arguments over the semantics of
writing octaves/ottava brackets/spanners, and whether the process is called
transposition/indication (a front runner!)/displacement, or whatnot.

Kurtis