Klarinet Archive - Posting 000656.txt from 1999/03

From: "Don Yungkurth" <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Piksiass clarinets
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 13:52:21 -0500

Bill Edinger wrote:

>>Klaus Pehl wrote:

>>"W|st a Piksiass Hvlzl hean" Klassisches Wiener Schrammelquartett
>>The title is Viennese dialect and means "Wan'a hear a sugar sweet little
>>piece of wood?"'

>I think there was a translation problem (program incompatibility) here,
>and that umlauted letters came out wrong: "W|st" should be wuest (using
>ue for u-umlaut), hvlz should be hoelz (an derivation of Holz, or
>wood?), etc. However, I find the term Piksiass intriguing - sounds more
>like it came from Parris Island than the Ringstrasse. Is this a
>put-on? It's a pretty funny one, either way.

The notes to Naxos 8.550228, which I reported on earlier, mention one of
the (anonymous) works played as "dances of picksusse Holzl" (with umlauts
on the u and o) and refer to the G clarinet as "picksusses Holzl". Susse
certainly seems to be "sweet" in my dictionary, but pick isn't so obvious.
One possibility is "pimple"!

I've read a reference someplace giving a literal translation of "picksusses
Holzl". Memory tells me that the English "pickle" is involved, but I have
not found the reference, and the dictionary doesn't substantiate this. To
call the G clarinet a "sweet wooden pickle" after translating an idiom in a
dialect is a possibility, however dim!

Don Yungkurth (clarinet@-----.net)

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