[Ads-l] Rossini Quotation

Sat May 12 17:42:48 UTC 2018

Thanks for your helpful comments about Italian, GAT. I have also heard
remarks in the same family applied to actors, e.g., the actor makes
impressive declamations based on a telephone book.

Here is a version of the statement attributed to Rameau (in Italian)
in 1817. Background: Gioachino Rossini was born in 1792.

Year: 1817
Title: Lo spettatore straniero ovvero mescolanze di viaggi, di
statistica, di storia, di politica, di letteratura, di belle arti e di
filosofia
Publication: Presso Gli Editori A.F. Stella E Comp, Milano
Section: Musica e Parole
Quote Page 153

https://books.google.com/books?id=aFNJC4o3ZXwC&q=%22di+Leida%22#v=snippet&q=%22di%20Leida%22&f=false

[Begin excerpt]
Rameau al contrario dicea: datemi a Gazzetta di Leida e la metterò in
musica. Ciò sarebbe un dire che la musica non può nulla esprimere,
poichè può applicarsi ad ogni proposito e canta ugualmente le nuove
politiche e le pene e le gioie dell'amore.
[End excerpt]

[Begin Google translate]
On the contrary, Rameau says: give me to Gazzetta di Leida and I will
put it to music. This would be a saying that music can not express
anything, as it can be applied to every purpose and sings equally the
new policies and the pains and joys of love.
[End Google translate]

Garson

On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 12:58 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> I've seen a great actor praised at being able to read a laundry list with
> effect -- and more than one, at that.
>
> laundress list: my paperback Dizionario Garzanti doesn't have "lavandaia",
> (I have a fuller dictionary, which I can't find right now) but I think this
> would be better as a possessive: laundress' list
> un poeta la metta prima in ottenari = if we read "ott*o*nari" instead of
> "ott*e*nari" then this means "a poet first puts it into verses of eight
> syllables"
> Dio mi guardi = (I think) God keep me from taking too seriously. . . .
>
> And Rossini was born in Pesaro, hence "the great Pesarese"
>
> GAT
>
> On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 11:57 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Fred Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>> > I am trying to trace a quotation, attributed to Rossini: "Give me a
>> laundry list
>> > and I'll [or 'I will'] set it to music."  In a little bit of searching
>> the earliest I have
>> > found it is from 1941.  I would welcome any help in finding pre-1941
>> occurrences
>> > of this in English or in Italian.
>>
>> Fun question. Here are matches in Italian in 1914 and 1913 for the
>> statement attributed to Rossini. Please double check for errors. I do
>> not know any Italian, so I am employing Google Translate which creates
>> flawed text. Rossini died in 1868, so there is probably considerable
>> room for improvement of these citations.
>>
>> Year: 1914
>> Title: Musicisti contemporanei; saggi critici
>> Author: Ildebrando Pizzetti
>> Publisher: Fratelli Treves, Milano
>> Section: I versi "per musica,,.
>> Quote Page 272 and 273
>> Database: HathiTrust
>>
>> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89000640581
>> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89000640581?urlappend=%3Bseq=293
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Essi potrebbero quasi ripetere, con Rossini, che anche la lista della
>> lavandaia si può mettere in musica; sottintendendo solamente (come
>> doveva sottintenderlo Rossini): purchè un poeta la metta prima in
>> ottenari coi quali la musica possa marciare speditamente.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> [Begin Google translation]
>> They could almost repeat, with Rossini, that even the laundress list
>> can be put into music; implying only (as Rossini had to imply): as
>> long as a poet puts it first in obtainances with which music can march
>> quickly.
>> [End Google translation]
>>
>>
>> Year: 1913
>> Periodical: Rivista d'Italia
>> Anno 16, Volume 2
>> Section: Giuseppe Verdi
>> Start Page 398, Quote Page 398
>> Publication: Piazza Cavour, Roma
>> Database: HathiTrust
>>
>> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076382314
>> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076382314?urlappend=%3Bseq=404
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Il Verdi intese, meglio del Rossini, il compito che alla musica è
>> assegnato nel melodramma. Dio mi guardi dal prendere troppo sul serio
>> l'espressione del grande Pesarese, che si dichiarava disposto a
>> musicare la nota...della lavandaia.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> [Begin Google translation]
>> The Verdi understood, better than Rossini, the task assigned to music
>> in melodrama. God look at me from taking too seriously the expression
>> of the great Pesarese, who declared himself disposed to music the note
>> ... of laundress.
>> [End Google translation]
>>
>> Garson O'Toole
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>
> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
> your lowly tomb. . .
> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>
> The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
> picture of his great-grandfather.)
> http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org