IMSLP Forums

I recentely started playing the treble viol. I didn't find a general Violist [da gamba] category or a more specific Treble violists catergory. How do I create a category? I read the page where it said I should make a new page under "Category:User XXXists", but I don't know how to do this...

(I am supposing the category violists means violists [da braccio], allthough there is no disambiguation to be found. )

After some investigation, it turns out someone else created part of a system for viola da gamba, but didn't complete it (this is why you couldn't find it in the list). I have now fixed it, so the templates User vdg-1 etc. should now work properly

Perfect! Not that it is such a big deal anyway, but it is sort of fun.

A small request:

I am not an English native speaker, but "viola da gambist" sounds odd to me.

Is it possible to change it into "viola da gamba player"? (as in "shakuhachi player", "recorder player", "mellophone player" and "handbell ringer").

Thaks,

M.

I am a native English speaker, and actually gambist is the correct word – like flautist, or oboist.

Regards, PML

Of course, I trust you, as this is your language and not mine. But "gambist" or "viola da gambist"?

Thanks,

M.

"Viola da gambist" is certainly clumsier than “gambist”, but I know a friend who plays the gamba refers to herself as a player using either term, so I think the only reason for citing the first would be for the sake of clarity, since the original term “violist” has been appropriated for players of the common orchestral viola (some dictionaries will state that a “violist” can refer to a player of either the viola or the viol, which is viewed as unhelpfully ambiguous).

For example, “violoncello” and “cello” are interchangeable, but “violoncellist” is a clumsier term than “cellist” – you’d only use “violoncellist” if you really wanted to spell it out for someone, or deliberately wanted to use the fancier term. The viola da gamba is considerably more obscure nowadays than either the viola or the cello, so that there is a case for using the clumsier of the terms, “viola da gambist”, to dispel any possible ambiguity or confusion.

Regards, PML

I'd prefer "violist da gamba," but I'm weird that way.

I'm with Lyle (but didn't want to say anything earlier in case I drew attention to my weirdness)

It’s quite possible my friend the gambist is the weird one! I note it’s not in the dictionary so it might be a neologism, but vernacular words often are.

PML

When I posted the original request, I suspected I was opening a can of worms; I (kind of) apologize.

Just to add to the confusion:

pml wrote:For example, “violoncello” and “cello” are interchangeable, but “violoncellist” is a clumsier term than “cellist” – you’d only use “violoncellist” if you really wanted to spell it out for someone, or deliberately wanted to use the fancier term. The viola da gamba is considerably more obscure nowadays than either the viola or the cello, so that there is a case for using the clumsier of the terms, “viola da gambist”, to dispel any possible ambiguity or confusion.

Of course, the whole thread is about English, so this is very aside. However, I cannot resist bringing in the facts that "violoncello", as well as "viola da gamba", are Italian terms, that in Italian "cello" and "cellista" do not exist ("cello" is very rarely used by English influence), and that "viola da gambista" -- if it existed -- would sounds more like a joke than a qualification: "violista" is often used, ignoring the ambiguity with a viola (alto/bratsche) player; "gambista" is also used to avoid this very ambiguity. This may accounts for my resistance to accept the English "viola da gambist" over "gambist" or even over "viola da gamba player".

I'm making no point here, simply adding some knowledge elements. Thanks for reading!

M.

(Just to avoid misunderstanding: my knowledge of Italian relies on me being Italian and native Italian speaker...)