[Trombone-l] Italian lessons (Tom Izzo)

[George Butler]

Ciao Tutti,
   
  Italian is a wonderful language, and useful language for musicians to learn.  Music printing, like everything else, started in Italy, so we all know what con sordino and senza sordino mean.  Maybe we even know piu mosso or meno mosso.  I'm always amazed to hear quasi mangled.  QWAEYS-EYE?  Oh, you mean QUAs-ee.  It's a nice, soft word, meaning "almost." 
   
  I'm in the third day of rehearsals for a "La Pellegrina" project here in Tallinn, music from the 1589 Medici wedding in Florence.  The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (mama mia!) are the singers, and Andrew Lawrence-King (of Harp Consort fame) is the director.  As good as the choir is, Andrew still goes over every phrase, using the text to shape not only the phrasing, but the shape of every note.  We wind players are asked to do the same, and we read from the same scores the singers use.  Early music folks do this all the time.
   
  I guess Charlie Vernon does the same thing when, on his Elmer Fudd Ride, he's thinking "KILL-me-a wab-bit, KILL me a wab-bit."  And, listen to George Roberts play a ballad.  Words ooze out the bell.
   
  From 1980 through 1984, I was co-principal trombonist at Teatro Regio di Torino, the opera house in Turin.  When I got off the plane, I didn't know si from no.  I was the only American in the orchestra.  I signed up for Italian lessons, and fell asleep in my grammar book.  Things didn't start to click until I bought a TV and watched Dallas every week, dubbed into Italian.  Chi ha sparito Jay-Err?  Who shot J.R.?  Ti amo, Sua Aye-len.  I love you, Sue Ellen.  (Yeah, don't we all...)
   
  At the deli or bakery, when the girl behind the counter asked, "Basta cosi?", I learned to answer "di piu," or "meno, meho," or  even "un meTA" (half, a form of mezzo.)  Those everyday tasks made the musical terms clearer for me.  Da Capo becomes clearer when you realize that it's "from the head, from the top" and dal segno is "from the sign."  Fermata?  At first you learn that that's the bus stop; later, you figure out that fermare is the verb "to stop."  Unfortunately, at the end of my first year, I fell for a Polish viola player, and my Italian never got as good as it should have.  (I think you all know to avoid falling for a Polish viola player...)
   
  Besides surviving in Italy, what else is Italian good for?  You can read early baroque treatises on wind playing.  Girolamo dalla Casa, Giovanni Bassano, Giovanni Battista Bovecelli, Francesco Rognoni, Antonio Brunelli, and others had method books on diminution.  These guys were the Aebersolds of their day.  Castiglione is good too, just for attitude and grace.  
   
  What else?  You can listen to Verdi or Puccini and actually know what's going on, and laugh or cry at the right places.  You can understand everything on the menu at the Olive Garden.  
   
  You can apply for the job opening at La Fenice, the opera house in Venice.  (Ricordi?  Massimo e andato a Cleveland.)  Just download il bando della concorso per primo trombone and see what happens.  
   
  You can also buy parts for your Fiat Spyder or even a leather jacket, by haggling with Tony,  who sells items of questionable provence from the trunk of his Alfa.
   
  I learned by jumping into into the deep end of the pool.  If you're still in school and have language requirements to get out of the way, Italian is a good choice.  So much of the pronunciation transfers to other European languages.  It's not hard, it's lyrical, it's fun.  It's real handy for music history.   I understand that the Rosetta Stone software packages are pretty good.  (I wish they offered Estonian!)
   
  Here's a quick lesson:  We all know that trombone means big trumpet.  Il trombone:  [Eel trrrom-BOn-nay]  Il--that's the letters "i" and "L", not sure how this looks in your font--is the masculine definite article.  It's pronounced like eel, the long, snakey fish.  
   
  With indefinite article, it's un trombone, a trombone.  The u in un is like the one in la luna, the moon.
   
  The plural with definite article is I tromboni [pronounced EEE trrom-BOn-ee], the trombones.    Due tromboni, tre tromboni, quattro tromboni...
   
  When folks I met in Italy asked what I did for a living, I never answered, "Sono Professore d'orchestra del Teatro Regio."  I always answered, "Sono trombonista."  [SOn-o trrom-bon-EEEst-ta.]  Rhymes with Sandanista, and definitely hipper.  The plural is I trombonisti [pronounced EE trrom-bon-EEEst-ee], the trombonists.
   
  For rehearsal, these may help:  If il maestro (literally, teacher) says, Tromboni, siete troppo forte, he thinks your section is too loud.  Play louder the next time, and he won't bother you anymore.
   
  If il maestro thinks that you guys are behind the beat, he'll say,  Tromboni, siete indietro.  Get with it, it's only Guglielmo Tell.
   
  I can't think of anything else you need to know, except maybe Riposo, break time.  Prendiamo un caffe.  
   
  George Butler [Giorgio BOOT-layer]
  Tallinn, Estonia
   
    
   
   

       
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