Gender-ambiguous Names
By Darrell Clarke
G'day all, Now that I have crawled back out of my hole, and wiped the egg off my face and apologized to Megumi, I'll just say that I should have known better, since my name is ambiguous too, although I haven't come across the my opposite number in this country yet! I had thought that this phenomenon was probably a feature of the English language, like surnames for first names. We have two people working here with opposite first and last names and our security passes put the last name first!
To other matters: has no-one heard of Reuben and Rachel (MMD 970401)?
I have followed the thread on concert grand reproducing players with interest because I think it has some relevance to a thread on "Loud Duo-Arts" some time back which debated the opposite problem. I have only heard push up players with concert grands to date. I wonder if many Vorsetzers, both standard and specials, could cope with the extra power needed for a concert hall. Obviously a foot powered unit would need a very fit power source. I have watched with amusement as operators on a Dutch street organ were changed mid-tune, without losing a note, to relieve a flagging cranker!
Cheers,
Darrell Clarke,
Adelaide, Australia
[ Relief Editor's notes:
[
[ The mighty legs of a mighty pianolist pumping a good Pianola should
[ yield mighty loud, and good music. The topic we're now discussing
[ is the characteristics of the motorized & automated reproducing piano
[ system, which was designed for modest volume in modest homes, and not
[ mighty halls. A satisfying concert performance -- with a concert
[ piano in a concert environment -- necessitates modifications of the
[ standard system, either by altering the music roll, or the piano,
[ or both.
{
[ Last night I asked Ian Whitcomb, our resident Englishman and Irving
[ Berlin expert, what he knew about 'Reuben and Rachel'. He said he'd
[ heard of neither the characters nor the song in Great Britain. Yet,
[ as a wee lad in California, I sang a 'Reuben and Rachel' song which
[ related the homilies and humour of simple farm folk. I suspect that
[ the origins of the lyric lie somewhere in the German-speaking lands
[ of Europe.
[
[ Robbie |
(Message sent Fri 4 Apr 1997, 02:18:00 GMT, from time zone GMT+0930.) |
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