Klarinet Archive - Posting 001008.txt from 2004/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] reeds
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 17:47:36 -0500


I wrote,
> Tracy Jones wrote,
> >Has anyone tried the new Vandoren Rue Lepig reeds?
>
> About that product name -- great honk, is everybody in
>Vandoren's marketing department tone-deaf to the
> English language?!

Mark Charette wrote,
>>Misspelling. Should have read 56 Rue Lepic.
>>
>>Though from the reports I hear Lepig isn't all that
>>far off.

LOL! Well, then, maybe the typo will stick, as a nickname.

Gary Drennan wrote,
>>>So Lelia,
>>>What does Rue Lepig mean? It's been thirty years
>>>since high school French!

My French is appalling and decades outdated; but although I assumed "Lepic"
was just the name of a street ("rue" means "street"), I thought it might
have been chosen for a double meaning, something to do with the learning
experience, because I had compounded the original typo with an error: I was
thinking of the verb "piger," which means "to understand" or to catch on to
something. Alas, on second thought, the conjugation would be spelled
"pige" (pronounced roughly, "peej"), not "pig." Anyhow, if that were the
right word, "rue le pig(e)" would mean "the road to understanding" or
something like that -- enlightenment, appreciation. If you "pige"
something, you suddenly "get it." That may be a slangy expression, and if
so, given that I learned it in the 1960s, it's probably about as hip today
as, "I dig it, baby."

"Hey dig-a-dig, kiss a little pig, strike up the band...."

I think probably the correct name of the reed, Rue Lepic, is likewise only
the name of a street -- probably on a steep hill -- but it might also imply
something like, "Road to the Summit." So, does using this reed put one on
the road to excellence? "Pic" is a cognate of English "peak." However,
"le pic" is also French for "the woodpecker," so maybe using Lepic reeds
would make me bang my head against the wall...?

Nancy Buckman wrote,
>>>>Unless I miss my guess (which is entirely possible),
>>>>56 Rue Lepic is Vandoren's address. It seems they
>>>>are using it to covey that this is a superior product.

Aha! I think Nancy's got the right answer. But I like the wrong ones
better. <g>

Seriously, for a moment -- Gary, I think it would be a major mistake to
lose Tony Pay from this list. He's one of the few authentic experts we've
got here. I complained (rather feebly) about his language several years
ago, not because it personally offends me (it doesn't; I use those words
myself) but because it does tend to distract and become the subject, with
the real subject forgotten; and also because I was afraid that anything
smacking of #$%!, xxx or 666 might cause some families' automatic
childproofing censors to kick in and reject the list -- although
apparently, in real life, auto-censors haven't been a problem. If
somebody's language sometimes gets a bit ripe, I think most of us probably
will survive. If this sort of thing bothers you so much, you could
subscribe to the moderated "clarinet" list instead.

Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@-----.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org