Re: A note on notes

[John Croft <mfmxhjcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 11/5/01 2:47, Bruno Repp at repp@ALVIN.HASKINS.YALE.EDU wrote:

> Not so. The first meaning of "tone" listed in the Oxford English
> Dictionary is "A musical or vocal sound, esp. with reference to its
> pitch, quality, and strength".

Certainly -- I didn't mean to suggest that "tone" never means a single sound
in British English, or that it never means an interval in US English.
But while we have our dictionaries out, the OED also gives, under "note",
the meaning "a single tone of definite pitch made by a musical instrument,
the human voice, etc."

> Perhaps I should have said "sound" for greater generality. My main
> point was that "note" should not be used to refer to musical sounds.

And my point was simply that "tone" merely replaces one ambiguity with
another.

John


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