[silence] Etudes Australes and Etudes Boreales spelling

[Thomas Moore]

On 2/23/09 4:48 AM, "kkrka kr" <haajg5@gmail.com> wrote:

> there is an ongoing debate at the English Wikipedia article about Etudes
> Australes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etudes_Australes, the debate is at the
> talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Etudes_Australes) as to whether
> the title of this work and Etudes Boreales should be spelled with an accent.
> Prof. Jerome Kohl, whom some of you will know, argues that "e'tudes",
> "australes" and "bore'ales" are all French words, and so the correct titles
> are in French and should be spelled "E'tudes australes" and "E'tudes
> bore'ales". However, such spelling is only rarely encountered, and it seems
> that the accepted norm is to use no accents whatsoever, probably because
> "australes" and "boreales" aren't French, but derived from the Latin titles of
> star charts Cage used, and the word "e'tude" is frequently encountered in
> English without the accent.
> 
> The question I'd like to ask is, has anyone ever heard Cage himself speak
> about these works? As Mr. Kohl pointed out, I quote, "If the recordings of
> Cage's interviews could be accessed, it would be a simple matter to discover
> whether he was thinking in French or in Latin, since the identically spelled
> words are pronounced quite differently. French is something like "oh-STRAHL",
> whereas Latin is more like "ow-STRAHL-ees" (the final E is long in Latin)."
> Perhaps some of you have spoken to Cage about these works, or heard an
> interview in which he discussed them?


Jashiin,

John said Australes in three syllables, as far as I remember, and we talked
about the pieces a number of times. (Also my recollection with Boreales.)

The lengthy debate on the wikipedia page is quite amusing, but anyone who
had taken time to read John's introductory note for the Etudes Australes
would see that it begins, "Etudes Australes are thirty-two piano etudes ...
The Title comes from Atlas Australis, a book of star maps..." At no point
does the word "etude" have an accent (even when written in lower case, "Each
etude has eight systems..."), and the word Australes is capitalized when the
title of the pieces is written out in the text ("Etudes Australes").

Best,
Tom

-- 

Thomas Moore
Director, Arts & Culture
Institutional Advancement
UMBC
410-455-3370


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