Song = piece of music (was: Novel = Book)

[Jonathan Lighter]

A self-taught fiddler friend of mine (with a non-musical Ph.D.) has always (i.e., since 1977) referred to jigs, reels, hornpipes. etc., as "songs."

JL

Tom Kysilko <pds at VISI.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Tom Kysilko

Subject: Song = piece of music (was: Novel = Book)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At a rehearsal of the orchestra I play in it is possible to hear in the
back of the violin section an exchange like:
Q: What song are we playing next?
A: The Schumann Piano Concerto.

I've heard this usage my whole musical life, it seems. I had associated it
with folks who have been taught to play an instrument, but not much about
music. Each piece in their method books was, in fact, a song
arrangement. However, perhaps there is more to it than that.
--Tom Kysilko

At 9/24/2004 04:50 PM -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>It was in the spring of 1983 or '84 that I first heard an undergraduate
>casually refer to a book of nonfiction as a "novel."


Tom Kysilko Practical Data Services
pds at visi.com Saint Paul MN USA
http://www.visi.com/~pds


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now.