Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 November 23

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November 23

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Nawasib in Arabic / Persian Wikipedia?

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Greetings,

While browsing recent scholarship on Islamic literature I came across following book.

I am curious to know if Arabic / Persian or some other Wikipedia dealing in Islamic theology has worked on Nasibi /nawasib literature. If yes then in which articles, in what form and which references, if any.

Thanks

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 05:21, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

We have entries on Nasibi /Nawasib in both Wikipedias, Arabic and Persian, with references: نواصب and ناصبی. Omidinist (talk) 02:44, 24 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What specific rank did the lords of "lordships" hold in the Holy Roman Empire?

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From what I understand, "lord" is a generic term for a nobleman, not a specific rank of nobleman. See this discussion and Category:Lordships of the Holy Roman Empire.

Never mind, I think I found the answer here.

Never mind the never mind: that article seems to contradict itself, unless I misunderstand something. ZFT (talk) 06:45, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Holy Roman Empire lasted 844 years, and was always more loosely agglomerated than tightly centralized, so that what applied to one area at one particular time didn't necessarily apply to other areas at other times. Some distinguished ancient aristocratic families were "untitled nobility" (we have a category Category:German untitled nobility but apparently no separate article...) AnonMoos (talk) 08:40, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
In German, the most common titles would have been Herr and Freiherr, but such rulers could also be a Graf, Markgraf, Fürst or Kurfürst, and probably some more titles I cannot immediately think of. But they could also be a bishop or such, in which case the religious title (Bischof / Erzbischof ) would be used. Some of these titles imply hereditary nobility, while others (e.g. Herr and Fürst) merely indicate rulership – even if the lordship or principality and therefore its rule was inherited.  --Lambiam 09:14, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Conductors communicating with orchestras

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Since conductors typically travel and guest perform so much, how do they typically communicate with foreign orchestras? For example, would the Berlin Phil as a whole understand English enough for it to be used? I know Bernstein spoke some German, but I can't imagine every non-German conductor can. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra presumably speaks Dutch (far less-common, of course), which almost certainly most conductors cannot. Any thoughts? I would assume English is a middle ground for many, but I'm honestly guessing at that. Aza24 (talk) 09:00, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Today, one can expect all members of these orchestras to speak English fairly well. Many are foreign-born anyway and may understand English better than German or Dutch. For example, Guy Braunstein, who was concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic for many years, is an Israeli. The concertmastership of the Concertgebouw Orchestra is shared between Bulgarian Vesko Eschkenazy and Romanian Liviu Prunaru. The last Dutch-speaking conductor of this orchestra was Bernard Haitink, who left the function in 1988. Most musical ideas require very little use of natural language to get them across between experts.  --Lambiam 09:34, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) here's a Russian conductor rehearsing with a French orchestra in English. Here's a British conductor rehearsing with a German orchestra in a mix of German and English. Here's another British conductor rehearsing with German students in German.
In general, since not only conductors but also orchestra musicians today are a highly cosmopolitan, well-travelled bunch, I'm pretty sure most orchestras are well prepared to use English as a working language whenever needed. Fut.Perf. 09:47, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

During performances, there's very little that needs to be communicated verbally between a conductor and a well-rehearsed orchestra. They really only need to say which song is about to be played, then the rest is all signaled with their arms and hands, with or without a conductors' stick. 2600:1702:4960:1DE0:6033:FF4F:6CE5:7BA8 (talk) 10:42, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In classical orchestras, you typically have zero verbal communication during concerts. Conductors don't announce "which song is about to be played" either; the players know the program. Talk is for rehearsals. -- Fut.Perf. 11:15, 23 November 2021 (UTC)
Worst case scenario, an interpreter can be used. --Xuxl (talk) 18:04, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
And since orchestras are large and likely to include numerous members who are multilingual, and some who are of other than the 'local' nationality, it's very likely that at least one of them will have a language in common with the conductor, and can function as that interpreter, even if they do not all have English (or another language) as a lingua franca. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.205.225.31 (talk) 04:59, 24 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]