Antedating of "Musicologist"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Friday, October 10, 2003, at 06:04 AM, James A. Landau wrote:

> I find it interesting that the quote uses the word "temperament" to
> refer to
> the selection of notes used in the scale, because TTBOMK (to the best
> of my
> knowledge) the correct word is "temper" and the word "temperament" is
> used in
> music only to refer to the emotional stability of musicians.

this is exactly backwards.  the musicological term is "temperament",
and "temper" refers only to an emotional state.

randel's New Harvard Dictionary of Music has an entry for "temperament"
and doesn't mention "temper".  meanwhile, isacoff's 2002 book about
selecting the tones of a musical scale is entitled Temperament.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)