Translating Music Terminology

I have taught workshops and private lessons mostly in the US, but have also had the opportunity to present workshops in The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy. In addition, with Zoom classes open to anyone around the world, my classes have become more and more international. With these experiences, I have learned that there are some differences in musical terminology that are important to consider…

In a workshop in the Netherlands, I was explaining where the 9 is in a chord. I pointed out that B is a whole step higher than A, but one student insisted it was F#, not B. This isn’t a difference in terminology, but in pronunciation… When I said “A” (pronounced long “a” or “ehee”) she heard the sound they make for the letter “E.” No worries, we figured it out, and I tried my best to say “Ah” for the note A.

Then in Germany, I was discussing perfect 5ths in a workshop on chords, and there was some quiet discussion in German amongst some of the class. Finally, the one with the best English let me know that they wanted to know what makes it perfect, and wondered if there are imperfect 5ths as well. I said “hmm…That’s just what this is called instead of major and minor fourths and fifths they are called perfect and diminished… She finally said “oh you mean ‘klar!’” which translates “clear.” Which sounds like a great way to describe those intervals. There is a clear, open sound due to so many overtones in sync. After all, what’s so perfect about them?

When I taught workshops in Italy, to avoid the “a” vrs “e” dilemma, we used solfeg – not the “Movable Do” or “Tonic Sol-fa” system we’re used to here in the US, but the “Fixed Do” system, where C is always Do, D is always Re, and so on. The solfeg syllables are pronounced the same in Italian as in English, and actually were first introduced by Guido d’Arezzo, an Italian music scholar in the eleventh century. They’re based on the first syllable of this Latin hymn to John the Baptist:

Although Ut was changed to Do and the 7th step was Si which is still in use today for fixed do, but was changed to Ti in Movable Do/Tonic Sol-fa in order to not have two syllables starting with S. More on this if you’re interested can be found in an article I wrote for the publication, “Vocals” in 1989: https://verlene.com/pdfs/SightsingingVocalsArticle.pdf

There are also differences in terminology for note values in Great Britain and several other countries. In the US we use the terms: whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes, which they call: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, and semiquaver. Why is a whole note only “semi” breve? Well, turns out that the double whole note (which would show up in 4/2 time) is called breve, and a whole note is half the value of the double whole, so -- semibreve. Makes sense.

And I love when we get to the thirty-second, sixty-fourth, hundred twenty-eighth, and two hundred fifty-sixth notes, which are respectively (and respectfully): demisemiquaver, hemidemisemiquaver, semihemidemisemiquaver, and demisemihemidemi-semiquaver notes. That seems so much more logical! It’s like saying half of a half of a half of a half but so much more fun to say and much less of a math problem than saying “what’s half of an eighth?” And how many counts does a half note get. The answer is not a half a count, or even half a measure unless it’s in 4/4 or 2/2 time.

I have forever struggled to explain to my students that in 3/4 time and 6/8 time, a whole rest gets the whole measure, but the whole note doesn’t fit. “Why not?” they ask. “Because that’s the way it is!” I exclaim, I mean explain. The British note naming system takes the issue of “whole” equal to 4 equal to whole measure out of the equation, so that a semibreve is not considered to be the “whole” of anything, but just a note value that has a mathematical relationship to all the other note values. The standard note tree still works:

I won’t be changing the music terminology I use for my American students, but will remember when I am working with students from other countries, that there may be some music terminology translation needed!

 

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