[Trombone-l] Italian lessons (Tom Izzo)

[Bill Dinwiddie]

Hi Georgio,

Really enjoyed reading your post. I would like to know more about your 
musical adventures in Europe, if you would kindly write us more postings.

Bill Dinwiddie
billdin at comcast.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Butler" <georgebutler2003 at yahoo.com>
To: "Trombone List" <trombone-l at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 4:52 PM
Subject: [Trombone-l] Italian lessons (Tom Izzo)


> 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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