Sharon
Just off the Fi-Pi-Li
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Just off the Fi-Pi-Li
I'm going to attempt to clear up the "SOL as a musical note" misunderstandings. Way back in the early 11th century, an Italian monk, Guido d'Arezzo, was teaching monks how to sing. One of the most difficult parts was having them memorize every tune, because there was no way of committing the melodies to paper. Guido noticed that a certain psalm they were singing, "Ut queant laxis", began each line on a successively higher note of the musical scale. He took the syllables on the first note of each line, Ut Re MI Fa Sol La, made those the names of the respective tones, and devised a way of representing them as markings on a system of parallel horizontal lines (our musical staff). Later the seventh note, the "leading tone", was given the name "Sí" from the initials of Sancti Ioannes, to whom the psalm had been dedicated. "Ut" was changed to "Do" so that all the notes began with a consonant. With various improvements over the years, this is the musical notation used ever since, all over the world. In the 19th century an English system of reading music was invented, in which Sol lost its L (so that all the notes had two-letter names) and Sí became Ti (so that they all began with a different letter). These changes were not adopted in Italy nor (as far as I know) anywhere else in Europe. It's still basically Guido's system, though! I feel particularly close to this subject, having taught for years here in Tuscany for the Fondazione Guido d'Arezzo.
@DIVAS IVLIVS Right: it's turtles that hold up the earth: turtles all the way down!
@Andrew Indic is an adjective applying to anything from the Indian subcontinent, especially in linguistics. It's used frequently these days for keyboard apps capable of typing in the various Indic-language alphabets.
@Pao Ton In Italy we ALWAYS pluralized "lira" to "lire", back when we had our own monetary system. We said "una lira", but "cento (100) lire". In fact, when the euro came in, it was a struggle for many Italians to stop pluralizing it to "euri" and follow government recommendations to leave the word invariable. With regard to the Mini crossword, the clue said "currency replaced by the euro in Italy". The currency that was replaced by "the euro" was "the lira", and so "lire" doesn't fit. But it's absolutely not true that Italians treated "lira" as invariable. I suppose Americans, back in the day, said "liras".
@Chris Ravi Shankar is also the father of world-famous singer-player-songwriter Norah Jones.
@Michael Weiland And mine has always been - just the names of the colors in order, which are no more difficult to remember than some made-up sentence which then has to be interpreted. True: after early childhood I have had to insert indigo, not present (as I recall) in what kids were being taught in the early 50s.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Just because of Julie Andrews!
@SBK Happened to me too... How about Apollo Wii as a fun new control system for today's spacecraft?
@john ezra I Peter 3:20 categorically states "a few, that is, eight"... you can prove anything using the Bible!
@Andrzej ALL your posts inspire discussions: so glad you're here!
@Francis I'm just waiting for Ketanji.
@Francis It's just because most people hardly ever use "savior" except in a religious sense, and many of us older types have seen the word mostly in the King James Version of the Bible, where it's spelled "saviour".
@Ace Do you also write the introductions for Stephen Colbert's "Meanwhile"? If you don't, you should!
@Elbridge Gerry Seems to me, since "naive regal gnat" was the only theme clue with more than one word that had to be turned AROUND, that ALL fit very nicely (turn ALL these words AROUND to get DRINKS).
@Times Rita Luigi Einaudi was Presidente della Repubblica Italiana at the beginning of our Republic following WWII. His son Giulio was head of one of Italy's leading publishers, Giulio Einaudi Editore. And Giulio's son Ludovico is one of my favorite composers, spanning as he does classical, pop, rock, folk and world music. (I'm a classical and operatic singer.)
@Hanson @Lewis ...and for anyone unaware of Paolo Pasco's constructing greatness: in the short time I've been solving the NYT crosswords, I've done three of his – two Thursdays (27 June and 31 October) and a Sunday (28 July), all in 2024. Three quite different types, each one memorable and each one (IMHO) a masterpiece. I don't see Jeopardy on Italian TV, but keep up with it via YouTube and am excited to follow Paolo Pasco's progress!
@Emu fodder So happy to see you back!
@SBK Well, we don't exactly "contend with" consonants – we just chuck 'em in and proceed. But that could conceivably have had some influence on the change. My own experience is that that T muddies up a fast melisma (series of different notes) if one is singing it with the solfa syllables, whereas a strict alternation of consonant-vowel trips lightly off the tongue. The L in Sol, on the other hand, is vocalized and interrupts nothing. So I can certainly see your point.
@NYC Traveler Pretty sure it depends primarily upon whether the constructor needs a C or a K in that space. Might be fun to cross it with Leif's dad, ERIC aka ERIK...
@Francis I believe the point is that all the theme answers are still complete words even without the final T.
@Andrzej In fact, Paolo will be back later this season, even after his winning streak ends: all those who win 5 or more games come back for a Tournament of Champions. Really BIG winners tend to be invited back multiple times, in successive years. That is what happened to Ken Jennings (referred to above for his 74-game streak). He racked up millions over the years. When the longtime and widely beloved host, Alex Trebek, died, Jennings accepted the job as host... of course he can no longer compete in tournaments!
@Emu fodder Completely concur. And though people may say Italy currently leans that little bit destra, I'm thrilled and relieved to have lived here for over half a century. NYT lately seems to be trying to square the circle, which famously may look like it's succeeding but never truly does. But please don't leave us alone in the struggle!
@Steve L Isn't that what Scrabble (basically) is?
@Steve L Yes, "più lento" is the simplest and most generic way of saying "slower". If the composer specifies "meno mosso", there is added an idea of "calm it down" or "less agitated" (which could also be "più tranquillo" or "meno agitato"). If the composer says "ritardando" or "accelerando" there is implied a (more or less gradual) process of slowing down or speeding up. There are more variations, like "rallentando" which is substantially the same as "ritardando". (I've been a professional musician in Italy for over half a century.)
@Lavinia Reminds me of that fateful four-minute stretch from "two-to-two to two-two".
@Dan Note to Dan: "blend" is also a verb.
@jam At least when I was in high school, anything better than average in gym class got an A. Average would take you down to some kind of B. You'd really have to be totally uncoordinated to get a C. No such thing as a D or an F in gym class! This was many long years ago, though... They had to be stricter in Driver Ed, since the kids were preparing for the DMV exams, which were no cakewalk.
Anybody notice the uncanny resemblance of today's WaPo (LAT) puzzle to an extremely recent NYT one?
@NH If the key signature contains either a D flat or a D sharp, and in a particular passage you need a just plain D, that's when the natural sign is obligatory.
@Richard [Things that happen when I sit on my lost glasses...]
@G Or how about Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" – a hit in 1958, which she re-released as a music video in 2023, whereupon it became the number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100?
@Katie Pasta vs Penne Advil vs Aleve pita vs naan
@Bill And Giulio Einaudi was the son of Luigi Einaudi, the first nationally-elected president of the Italian Republic following World War II. A most outstanding family in every way.
@The X-Phile And I remember many orchestra players of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence's chief musical organization) sneaking transistor radios into the pit during a concert to keep up with the Italian soccer team in the 1982 World Cup – which Italy then won! We in the chorus were too exposed to audience gaze to try any such thing...
@Francis 78 here, haven't lived in any English-speaking country since 1973 but breezed through this one and totally loved the Shakespeare! My 3 siblings and I, plus various offspring, have a weekly Zoom in which we read Shakespeare plays, role assignments wonderfully handled by the greatest Bard fan of the siblings. Currently almost done with Love's Labour's Lost, probably Othello next. And I definitely remembered SCHIRRA, TONEARMS and all the rest. Keep up with culture and current events, everybody, it'll never hurt you!
@dutchiris She'll just have to put a TRACER on it.
@CrispyShot I absolutely agree! In fact, in the very word VOWEL I would argue that the W is acting pretty much as a U. In Italian to transliterate the English word "wow" we write "uau". Not to mention, of course, the Welsh vowel W. In sum, as far as I can see, W is every bit as much a vowel as Y (sometimes or not).
@Marshall Walthew (Six, actually...)
@G I've always heard her called "Venus on the Half-Shell".
Enjoyed this puzzle greatly, finished in under my average time. Just wondering: did anyone else, like me, see that there was a theme after getting the gold star?
@pollyq Living in Italy as I do, I took "problemone" to be Italian for "big problem". ("Problemino" is "little problem"; "problema" is just plain "problem".) Over here we can augment or diminish anything with the stroke of a suffix!
@random Freiburg fan A nice homage, kudos!
@Bruce If I recall correctly, the Apollo 13 crew were able to survive by building a makeshift air filter adapter, using duct tape and a few other things, when they were forced to move from the Command Module into the Lunar Module. I understand all NASA missions carry duct tape.
@Francis DOOK makes no sense at first glance, but if you parse it differently you'll do OK.
@Dan Me too – solving in Italy on my Android phone using Chrome browser on the NYT website. Must be worldwide then. Be interesting to know whether anyone has ever done the NYT crossword up at the ISS... but I suppose there's already a bit of a built-in lag way out there.
@Sharon Also, since the classes referred to are driver ed, gym, wood shop and just plain history, we're evidently talking about high school, not university. I'd expect university grading to be more demanding.
@John Carson Quite challenging but I did it - thanks! Fun!
@RozzieGrandma I think we are to assume that when they first saw the star, they were in the East.
@Mike Me too, a couple of decades at this point, and it's one of Britten's most enjoyable things to sing. When we did "Rejoice in the Lamb" at the Maggio Musicale, I had the alto solo (For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour) and had great fun doing it. We all did, in fact, and I'd bet whoever has had the privilege of singing anything by Britten counts it as one of life's joys. I'm sure @Mike will agree!
@Bill But oh! that G-natural! And I will never forget singing Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. (Used to memorable effect in 2001: A Space Odyssey.)