Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 February 15

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February 15

classical guitar

Could someone please tell me when Yamaha stopped making the CG-100A guitar in Taiwan? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.12.62.210 (talk) 16:14, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

What does the word song refer to in the title of The Song of Bernadette film?

Why is the word "song" included in the title of this film? (And, also, I believe, the book upon which the film is based.) What does the word "song" refer to? Did I miss something? I saw nothing even remotely close to resembling a "song" (or any allusion to any song) in the film. What is its meaning and significance? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:40, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

Song in the sense of a poetical composition, probably a reference to chansons de geste such as the The Song of Roland or The Song of William. ---Sluzzelin talk 19:08, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

Hollywood had a real thing about "Song" films for a while there. Admittedly, most of them related to composers or musicians: A Song to Remember [Chopin], Song Without End [Liszt], Song of Love (1947 film) [Brahms, and Robert & Clara Schumann], Song of Russia, Song of Scheherazade [Rimsky-Korsakoff], later Song of Norway (film) [Grieg], Song of Summer [Delius; not Hollywood] ....).

But this particular film was based on the novel The Song of Bernadette (novel) by Franz Werfel, so it's down to him for an explanation. Werfel (a Jew, by the way; not a Catholic as most people assumed), was married to Alma Mahler, the widow of Gustav Mahler, both composers, so maybe that had some vague connection to the title he chose. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:38, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

FYI, the song of Alma is here:[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:11, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Ah, that song again. It keeps on coming back to haunt me ever since 2003. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:36, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

You were way ahead of us, as usual. :) Oddly enough, another song title on that album could have been descriptive of Alma's lifestyle: "Who's Next?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:50, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Just on a point of information, the book was originally written in German and was called Das Lied von Bernadette. I know Lied means "song" but I can't say how the secondary meanings and extended senses of Lied differ from those of song, not being a German-speaker. Anyone want to comment on that? --Antiquary (talk) 19:48, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

I did take that into account, and "Lied" can mean "epic poetry" too (see Duden, e.g.). The Song of Songs is called "das Hohelied" (the High Song), Song of Roland is "Rolandslied" etc. According to a Spiegel article from 1959, Werfel had pledged "If I get led out of this desperate situation and am allowed to reach the salvaging coast of America ..., then I shall first of all, before any other work, sing the song of Bernadette." In the book's preface he wrote: "In our age, an epic song can only assume the shape of a novel"[2] ---Sluzzelin talk 03:20, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Well there's the answer from the horse's mouth. Our 9K byte article on the novel didn't include a mention of which language it was written in, so I've now added that. --Antiquary (talk) 11:32, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

You (Sluzzelin) mention a "desperate situation" in the life of the author, Franz Werfel. Our article on his biography states: After the German invasion and occupation of France during World War II, and the deportation of French Jews to the Nazi concentration camps, Werfel had to flee again. With the assistance of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee in Marseille, he and his wife narrowly escaped the Nazi regime, finding shelter for five weeks in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes. He also received much help and kindness from the Catholic orders that staffed the shrine. He vowed to write about the experience and, safe in America, he published The Song of Bernadette in 1941. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:11, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Yes indeed — my point of translating the quoted pledge was that, already at that point, he planned on '"singing the song" rather than simply writing a story. ---Sluzzelin talk 18:32, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Yes, thanks. I'm glad he did. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:28, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

I believe that before we devised a method of writing down musical notes, something intended to be sung would simply be written down as poetry (not necessarily rhyming). So, at that time, there wasn't much distinction between a written poem and a song, such as in the Song of Solomon. Thus, the two terms were almost synonyms then, and still are occasionally used that way now, although it seems a bit archaic. And, since that poetry also often depicted a persons life story, a person's "song" could as well be their biography. Not sure if the same is true in German or not. StuRat (talk) 21:00, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 15:08, 17 February 2015 (UTC)