Klarinet Archive - Posting 000522.txt from 1998/09

From: "F. Sheim" <fsheim@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Occian
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 19:03:16 -0400

So what the title means is: Variations on an Occian air, where Occian is a
dead language? Makes sense.

Fred (fsheim@-----.com)

At 07:11 AM 9/15/98 -0400, you wrote:
>A writer enquired about the Occian language (Language d'oc). This was a
>Romantic language used in Southern France from Medieval-Renaissance
>times to early in this century. It contained influences of Celtic and
>Latin. It was also used in courtly affairs, as a less formal, more
>sensuous alternative to French or Latin or Italian. (How any tongue
>could be more sensuous than Italian is utterly beyond me, this language
>d'oc must have been very beautiful indeed). In fact, Dante originally
>sketched his Inferno in Occian, but chose to write it in a more
>accessible tongue.
>
>Who knows the Songs of the Auvergne by Canteloube? These ravishingly
>beautiful songs are in Occian. Listen and weep.
>
>Robert Howe
>
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