"professor" = piano-player

[Dan Goncharoff]

Just a comment: Thomas Busby, whose "A complete dictionary of music"
is dated 1811 in GB, defines "Pianist" as "One who plays on the
piano-forte; a professor of that instrument", so the connection of a
professor and a piano player seems to go back further in time.

DanG



On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 12:14 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      "professor" = piano-player
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm not keeping up with the state of the revision of the OED: is this a new
> entry?  In any case, a 30 year antedating.
>
>     *musical party.  sixth avenue tavern*.  *Near the corner of Greenwich
> Lane and Sixth Avenue*.  ***  A Professor will preside at the Piano
> Forte.  Admittance
> 12=BD cents, with a refreshment ticket.
>     Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, December 14, 1830, p. 2, col. 7
> 5 *c.* *U.S.* *colloq.* A piano player in a saloon, brothel, dance hall,
> etc. Also: an orchestra leader. Now *hist.*
> 1860    =91N. Buntline=92
> *Elfrida<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?rskey=3DFE7=
> 1X7&result=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> * lxxiv. 101/1   At one end of the room, elevated upon a low platform, was
> the =91music=92=97consisting of the ill-tuned, or rather *untuned* piano
> aforementioned, and the =91professor=92, a very seedy-looking gentleman.
> 1895    *N.Y. Times<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?=
> rskey=3DFE71X7&result=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> * 21 Jan. 7/5   The perfesser only went out for a drink. He feels better
> now, and asks permission to play the pianner for an hour.
> 1914    *Chicago Daily
> Tribune<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?rskey=3DFE71=
> X7&result=3D1&isAdvanced=3Dtrue>
> * 19 July viii. 8/1,   I will now address myself to the professor orchestra
> leader. I want, sir, a waltz, well done.
>
> Years ago, I heard an elderly Jazz musician interviewed on radio -- name
> forgotten.  He had an appointment as artist-in-residence at the music dept.
> of a major university, a gig that he very much enjoyed, especially to see s=
> o
> many young people interested in the music, and som of them very talented.
>  He was happy to think that jazz would be played and enjoyed for decades to
> come.  ONe thing troubled him, though.  The students were eager to talk to
> him after class, and they greeted him on campus, but they always addressed
> him as "Professor" -- now, when he was a young man, a professor was a man
> who played piano in a whore house, and so, to him, it was a term of
> disrepute.
>
> GAT
>
> --=20
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ=
> .
> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
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