[Smt-talk] Last Reply to Prof. Vaisala

[Olli Väisälä]

Well, well — it seems some people are more concerned with the form of  
the message, others with content. Of course, we could leave this  
issue at that. Nevertheless, perhaps it will do no harm to share some  
thoughts about (n)etiquette. After all, some problems might be  
related with our coming from different cultures with somewhat  
different standards of good manners.

First, about greetings: Since these are not private letters but  
comments in discussion, I have never thought that greetings are  
obligatory or that omission of them could be considered impolite.

Second, how to address people: This is certainly an issue to which  
the attitudes are widely different in different parts of the world.  
In Germany, I think, titles like Dr. and Prof. are still widely used  
(I have received letters calling me Herr Doktor Professor). In  
France, to my knowledge, all people can be called Monsieur and Madame/ 
Mademoiselle (those who know better, correct me, if I'm wrong). In  
the small North European country where I live – which has  
exceptionally strong traditions of democracy and equality –  
addressing people as Doctor or Professor would tend to make a  
humorously old-fashioned impression. In this list, I have seen that  
people usually call each other with first names, and I have mostly  
followed suit.

In any case, I have always thought that in international  
communication it is best to be very tolerant towards different ways  
to address people. Owing to my cultural background, for example, it  
did not occur to me that calling someone "Mr." (instead of Lecturer  
or Dr., or Prof., for that matter) might be considered insulting. On  
the other hand, I am also "tolerant" towards my being called "Prof.",  
although my actual occupation is Lecturer. (A few years ago I used to  
correct those who called me Prof., but then I stopped taking the  
trouble since I felt a bit ridiculous in directing attention to such  
a less relevant thing; the meaning of Prof. is, in any case,  
different in different parts of the world.)

Third, a point that may be obvious to most who have followed this  
discussion, but in the unlikely case that Dr. Ninov takes the trouble  
of reading this, this might be explained. His message to which I  
responded contained four points, to all of which I might have had  
something to say. However, I felt unmotivated to take the trouble,  
apart from listing the sections in Aldwell&Schachter that deal with  
the issues he was concerned with, and felt that I owe him some kind  
of an explanation. The main reason for my lack of motivation was, of  
course, that arguments should be more clearly focused and justified.  
Discussions are not likely to be fruitful, when it is not easy to  
make sense of what someone is trying to say (musical examples do not  
illustrate the point made verbally) or when his claims lack adequate  
justification (the "certainty" about teaching in USA without  
knowledge of A&S, for example).

(In addition, it seemed to me that points that I found interesting  
did not tend to be interesting for Dr. Ninov. His thoughts about  
"expansion of a principle" were, to me, strikingly reminiscent of the  
thoughts about prolongation of rules in Schenker's Counterpoint,  
which Dubiel discussed illuminatively in the article I mentioned. I  
thought that my remark about this issue might stimulate him to  
consider the relationship between his and Schenker's ideas, but his  
response suggested that he has no interest in this.)


Olli Väisälä
Sibelius Academy
ovaisala at siba.fi




> Dear Professor Vaisala,
>
> Thank you for your input. Since you bring the question of the level  
> of the current discussion, I would like to outline the difference  
> between our approaches to it:
>
> 1. I begin my letter with a greeting to you; you do not.
>
> 2. I call you a professor, you address me as "Mister".
>
> 3. I end the letter with a greeting; you do not.
>
> 4. I do not afford to discuss openly the probability of how many  
> colleagues will be willing or unwilling to participate in a  
> discussion with you, because this would be an impolite and cheap  
> attitude on my part. On the other hand, you decided to use this  
> maneuver yourself.
>
> I leave you to consider the above remarks in the light of the  
> current level of discussion, and to make your inferences.
>
> With best regards,
>
> Dimitar Ninov
>
>
> Dr. Dimitar Ninov, Lecturer
> School of Music
> Texas State University
> 601 University Drive
> San Marcos, Texas 78666