pianist vs. piano player

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 01:14 PM 2/7/02 -0600, you wrote:
>on 2/7/02 1:05 PM, ANNE V. GILBERT at avgilbert at PRODIGY.NET wrote:
>
> > Laurence:
> >
> >>> I'd kind of agree with this and suggest it's like "fiddler" vs.
> > "violinist."
> >>
> >> I'm not sure both of these can be right, since "fiddler" vs.
> >> "violinist" (and indeed, "fiddle" vs. "violin") has more to do with
> >> the kind of music played (what Michal Lisecki refers to in his first
> >> disjunct rather than his second).  So whether the fiddler (for a
> >> country or bluegrass group, say) is still a fiddler whether s/he's
> >> the lead or central member of the group or just one of many
> >> musicians.   Notice it's "jazz violin(ist)" and not "jazz fiddle(r)",
> >> as well as classical.  "Pianist" vs. "piano player" may well involve
> >> the soloist vs. ensemble player parameter as well as the genre.  On
> >> the latter, I was always struck by the fact that the old Truffaut
> >> film noir and Charles Aznavour vehicle, Tirez sur le Pianiste, was
> >> rendered into English as Shoot the Piano Player, not Shoot the
> >> Pianist.  He played a kind of improv jazz piano in a cafe.  It was
> >> one of my favorite films when I was of the appropriate age.  I note
> >> that google has thousands of hits for "Don't Shoot the Piano Player",
> >> which I guess is an old dictum; however, "Don't Shoot the Pianist"
> >> also has a large number (although only half as many), so perhaps this
> >> doesn't prove anything.
> >
> > I don't know.  AFAIK, "fiddlers" are violinists(if that's the right word)
> > who play just about anything other than classical music.  But OTOH, if
> > someone is referred to as a "jazz violinist", this may have something to do
> > with jazz being considered a musical art form that is close in some ways to
> > classical(it has traditions, composers, a history, etc).  whereas, I don't
> > think I've ever heard people who play in bluegrass bands referred to as
> > "bluegrass violinists".  But you hear or see things like "S/he plays the
> > banjo in the Appalachia Bluegrass Band" or soemthing like that.   And s/he
> > will be listed as "banjo:  Anne Gilbert" or "fiddle:  Anne Gilbert on any
> > programs.  But again, that's just a kind of overall impression.  Bluegrass
> > and Irish music, just to take two musical forms off the top of my head,
> > aren't considered quite "art" by many people, but jazz and classical are.
> > Anne G
> >
>There was a gentleman in Springfield MO (Art Galbreath) whose style was
>smoother and softer than others'.  He sometimes referred to himself as a
>fiddler and often referred to himself as playing the violin.  His
>instrument, I think, had the flat bridge.  He liked to play waltzes.  He cut
>at least one record.  Another friend of mine from the Ozarks, but not
>accomplished enough to dare to cut a record, refers to his instrument as a
>violin or as a fiddle and refers to playing the violin.  So the hoity-toidy
>distinction probably did not originate within the fiddler population.
>
>DMLance

And when Itzhak Perlman plays klezmer music, it's on the fiddle.


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm