pianist vs. piano player

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/7/2002 12:33:33 PM, someone writes:

<< > I'd kind of agree with this and suggest it's like "fiddler" vs.
"violinist." >>

A fiddle and a violin are not the same instrument.

> the latter, I was always struck by the fact that the old Truffaut
> film noir and Charles Aznavour vehicle, Tirez sur le Pianiste,
> rendered into English as Shoot the Piano Player, not Shoot the
> Pianist.

It is perhaps worth bearing in mind that French does not have "joueur du
piano" as an *idiomatic* alternative for Latin-rooted term, nor any of the
other Romance languages.  Hence, whereas one says "Je joue du piano", "Je
suis pianiste" is the immutable nominative expression.  So above comparison
of English vs French tells us only that the English translator made a
decision that did not reflect the original language,i.e., the translator had
to chose one or the other, and what the translalor thought was more in
keeping with the film itself was PLAYER, not -IST. But that tells us
absolutely nothing about WHY the translator thought PLAYER was more
apprpriate, or even whether the translator found the difference important or
merely an arbitrary decision that had to go one way or another, neither of
which was any better or worse than the other.