Italian translation tools

I’m in an Italian diction class (for singing), and as part of that I get to translate texts sometimes.

Having Spanish at my disposal is quite useful, as I can guess most things, and most things I’m not so sure about can readily be translated into Spanish.

As such, I’m not so sure that these will be useful to many, but they are useful to me.

So, first, an italian-spanish dictionary
next, the drae (Diccionario Real Academia Española)
and an old spanish-english dictionary for those words not found in the italian-spanish dictionary (deh and fida come to mind).

Musical Analysis (Arbeitsbuche)

I was recently trying to locate a specific release of Rudolf Buchbinder’s Beethoven Sonatas 1-3, and I chanced upon some interesting downloads on musical analysis. Well, at least I think they’re interesting – unfortunately, my German is only slightly better than my Greek, so I cannot determine exactly how true this is. Fortunately, music notation is pretty standard, and other figures aren’t too hard to analyze.

Regardless, here are a couple of interesting musical links for the musically inclined.

http://www.wisskirchen-online.de/

Workbook for Upper-level Music Instruction Volume 1

Workbook for Upper-level Music Instruction Volume 2

(and I hope I did not completely botch the title translation)

My Moustache

Here’s a fun little pre-barbershop tune; the original lyrics are a bit out of date, but I think that the revision is excellent.  My mom found it for my quartet back in high school.

Original Lyrics:

1. My moustache is growing, its genial warmth bestowing; its beauty charms the eye of all Broadway. Come forth like a fairy so light and so airy, and ramble o’er my upper lip so gay.

A Stunning Performance

(written originally in 2003, and posted unmodified despite my impulse to do otherwise)

The day of my performance had finally arrived. My Mom picked up my three younger siblings and me from school in our new white minivan. As we drove to the community college I tried to avoid thinking about the upcoming performance and instead went over the past week in my mind.

As I had walked into the piano store Dr. Dean had greeted me with his usual, “Hello, Kimosabe Breath.” I scrunched up my shoulders to avoid the inevitable “wishbone treatment,” but to no avail. Dr. Dean jokingly gave me a Vulcan neck pinch without the release. As always he asked me if I knew why he referred to it as the wishbone. I responded that it was because I wished it would stop.

Pärt’s alive?

I never knew that Arvo Pärt was a modern composer.  His music always made me think of Gorecki, and other such composers… Actually, I just found out that Henryk Gorecki is modern too!

In my defense, I should point out that Pärt composed in two styles.  If you were to hear my mom’s CD you would have a better understanding of my confusion.

Hmm… Ikos really misled me…

My mother has a CD called Ikos.  It has music by John Tavener (the modern), Pärt and Gorecki, interleaved with Plainchant.  It’s an excellent recording, but I never took the time to look at more than the cover.  Now I want to listen to it again, just to see what I missed, or what musical cues I should have picked up on to indicate that I was mistaken in the period.

I should also point out that I first heard this CD before I had any education in music theory.  Of course, even if it were a recent acquisition, it’s possible that I may have been confused.  If you listen to any music by Carlo Gesualdo, you might understand what I mean.  Try listening to a part of O vos omnes (it’s the 2nd track on the 2nd CD).  Incidentally, that CD (The Best of the Renaissance by the Tallis Scholars) is also excellent.

update: As a result of thinking about this, I bought Ikos.  Maybe I should think less?  Nah…