Part Two: Musical Chairs – How Italian Terms Orchestrate English
Weaving from the fabric of culinary terms in the last post, the influence of Italian on English takes a turn melodious. In English, Italian musical terms have shaped a detailed and colourful picture of cultural interchange.
Opera, concerto, and sonata are words so natural to native English speakers that their Italian roots are often forgotten. But, how is it that these sorts of words, so thoroughly Italian, have become part of the furniture in the home of the English language?
The Renaissance was a time of cultural regeneration. Much of Europe saw Italian musicians, composers and music theorists taking the lead in music. Many music treatises that made their way around Europe, such as Zarlino’s Le Istitutioni Harmoniche, were written in Italian as opposed to Latin. Compositions and erudite works broke national lines and linguistic barriers, spreading euphonious terminology that we still use today. English, ever the magpie, deeply inhaled these semantic breaths of musical THC (or, simply put, impressive new words) into its lexis.
Jacopo Peri’s Dafne takes credit for being the very first opera, and English language speakers have been using the word (albeit – often infuriatingly – disregarding its plural version, opere) since the early 17th century. Meaning ‘work’ or ‘composition’, the word opera is powerful and evocative. It brings the dramatic, creative work of composers such as Rossini, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky to mind.
Although often taken for granted, it isn’t easy for words to stand the test of time. So many have fallen by the wayside, littering the peripheries of language. There is always hope, though, especially in a world of Moira Rose-type characters. Catherine O’Hara pored over Foyle’s Philavery in an effort to revive copious lexical treasures on behalf of the more timorous logophiles amongst us. Acts of thaumaturgy do sometimes happen!
Terminological words like opera might have stuck around because they have a real, unequivocal purpose and are therefore used frequently. When you think about it, there isn’t really a synonym for opera. Conversely, words that didn’t last, such as ‘taradiddle‘ can be replaced easily with synonyms like ‘twaddle’ and ‘nonsense’. Conversely, coined in 2009 by writers of political satire The Thick of It, the OED word of the year 2012 ‘omnishambles‘ has been gaining traction. I do wonder what tumultuous political event could have prompted a surge in the use of this word from 2017… Oxford Languages defines it as ‘a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged and is characterised by a string of blunders and miscalculations’. I’ll let you figure that one out.
From the Italian concerto, comes a composition written for an orchestra and soloist. Many regards concertos (or, even better, concerti) as the epitome of musical artistry, given that the soloist requires highly technical and expressive expertise. We are also familiar with terms such as ritmo [rhythm], the Latin version of the Greek word for ‘power’ [ῥυθμός – rhuthmós]. The adjective allegro [merry] is used to describe a brisk and lively tempo [pace]. Here we see that particular shades of musical expression were transplanted with the words themselves.
In The Stories of English, David Crystal describes the Renaissance as a turning point for the arrival of Italian borrowings in English, especially through the arts. These loans were not just literary acculturations, but reflections of profound esteem for Italian art and ingenuity at the time. The thorough grafting of Italian musical terms into our English is testimony to how deeply Italian culture has moulded English-speaking communities. The difference it makes is palpable, felt in concert halls and music classrooms worldwide.
For those who want more, test your music terminology here!
Part Three [Art] Coming Soon
