Talk:Glossary of music terminology

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Uptempo was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 24 March 2010 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Glossary of music terminology. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

narrante

If there are no objections, I will change the definition of "narrante" to "Narratively" rather than "Narratingly", which I don't think is a word. If I've misremembered what narrante signifies on the music page, please feel free to correct the entry!

AreThree (talk) 05:37, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Colla parte and "follow"

diff

In the Grove dictionary entry on "Colla parte" there is mention of "possibly flexible" tempo, which helps motivate the choice of "follow" as being appropriate here. Symphony players follow the beat of the conductor. The violin section follows the concertmaster. One partner in a couple dance such as a waltz follows the lead of the other, and both follow the beat provided by the band. (Yes, dancing and music are very much analogous performances.) In none of the above cases should there be any appreciable lag.

Just because "follow" without context might possibly denote a distance or delay between the leader and follower, that does not mean colla parte entails any such lag or delay. Occam's razor suggests that the sense being used is "go along with" not "follow from a distance." How closely a musician follows another part depends on interpretation, prevailing style, and the preference of a director or consensus of an ensemble. Just plain Bill (talk) 22:32, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This part is where you are misunderstanding the prose: "that does not mean colla parte entails any such lag or delay." The point of this definition is not to argue that colla parte entails such lag. To the contrary, the point is to make sure a novice reader (a likely user of the glossary) understands that "follow" in this case does not mean "lag." Without further information they may interpret it that way. Like many of the definitions in this glossary, a number of details are missing.

Here is the definition in German Wikipedia for comparison: Colla parte (Italian "with the part"), abbreviated cp , is a musical instruction originally in a choral piece. It states that the accompaniment by the instruments is (largely) identical to the vocal parts. The instruments serve as support for the vocal parts or replace missing parts. A good example of colla parte is Venetian polyphony. In a broader sense and more recently, the term colla parte is also used when the rhythm, tempo and expression of the accompaniment of a single, independent main vocal part ( opera , cantata ) has to be matched. As an abbreviation in a score, colla parte means that one part should play the melody line, for example in flute or first violin, without writing it out again. Usually only a wavy line indicates the duration of the colla parte notation (cf. Faulenzer ). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrismartin76 (talk • contribs) 00:59, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No, I understand your concern that a musical novice might overthink a dictionary definition, believing it to mean that colla parte could mean repeating another instrument's line after some unspecified delay. I do not share that concern. Saying that another part (or voice) "should be followed" seems to me like simple understandable English; misunderstanding it would take extra effort. Just plain Bill (talk) 02:52, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]