<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Skia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Skia; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Recent contributions reminded me of this classic, from Handel's Messiah:<div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; "> All we like sheep</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; "> (…have gone astray)</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; ">It's not exactly bad scansion, but no native English speaker would have put that pause before completing the simile. (German does not have a homonym that can mean both "resemble" and "are fond of".)</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; ">This lick has occasioned adolescent chorister twittering for decades--perhaps centuries?</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; ">So has this one, from Mendelssohn's Saint Paul:</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; ">He watching over Israel,</div><div style="font-size: medium; ">Slumbers not nor sleeps. (read: "slumber, snot, snore, sleep")</div><div style="font-size: medium; "><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><div style="font-size: medium; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Again, nothing "wrong", but one imagines only a non-native speaker could have written it.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div apple-content-edited="true" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>David Feurzeig</div><div>Associate Professor, Composition and Theory</div><div>Department of Music and Dance</div><div>University of Vermont</div><div>Burlington, VT 05405</div><div>802-656-1498</div><div><br></div></div></span></div></div></span></div></span></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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