Klarinet Archive - Posting 000332.txt from 1996/12
From: Gary Young <gyoung@-----.COM> Subj: Re: Opus Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 16:00:19 -0500
This stuff about "opus" is all very confusing. If "opera" is the plural =
of "opus," then what is "operas" the plural of? If "opera" is plural, =
then, listening to Wozzeck, may one ask: "How many other opera did Berg =
write?"? How could Wozzeck be both Berg's opera and also Berg's opus =
(namely opus 7)? Is "opus" derived from the nineteenth-century English =
expression "Oh Puss!," with which clarinettists then chastised their =
chronically misbehaving cats? Was "Wozzeck" -- i.e. Berg's Oh Puss! 7 =
-- the name of Berg's seventh cat? Did Wozzeck the cat have an =
"operation" or an "opusation"? (I ask these questions in public with =
considerable trepidation.)
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