[Dixielandjazz] Obbligato????????

[Steve barbone]

Listmates and fellow wordsmiths:

Can't resist further muddying of the waters. My Dictionary defines Obbligato
in music as: Music not to be left out; indispensable: said earlier of an
accompaniment essential to the proper performance of a PIECE, BUT (EMPHASIS
MINE) now usually of one that can be omitted. (Webster's New World College
Dictionary 3rd Edition Copyright 1996.)

Now just what the heck does that mean?

Obbligato? Who cares what it means? Just play the damned thing or don't,
makes no difference at all according to Webster's. :-) VBG.

Solo? What's that all about. Solos, in music, by definition "may be played
or sung by one person, with or without accompaniment." Most non-musical
definitions of solo (e.g. flying a plane), mean doing it alone.

Obbligato and Solo, would appear, by musical definition, to mean everything
and therefore, as Bill Gunter says, really mean nothing.

So why are we knocking ourselves out over nothing? Kinda like worrying about
mice when it's the elephants who are running amok. ;-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve  Barbone