Am 24. Okt 2006 um 14:29 schrieb Malcolm Wechsler:
> DearZach and List,
>
> I was corrected firmly one day in my student years at Oberlin, having
> said "Von" for several years, and being pig-headed and totally
> convinced
> that it therefore sounded correct and /was /correct, the weight of the
> authority of Fenner Douglass and the information that Vom was a
> contraction of Von and Dem for the masculine Himmel, Heaven. My
> Cassell's offers Dem Himmel sei Dank by way of example. Heaven be
> praised, thank Heaven.
>
> So be it,
>
> Malcolm on a day of Bedeckter Himmel, overcast sky - somewhat
> related to
> Gedeckt.
>
> Zach wrote:
>
> I've seen some write "Von Himmel Hoch Da Komm Ich Her" and others
> use "Vom Himmel Hoch Da Komm Ich Her" so which is correct Von or Vom?
Dear Malcolm,
you are right, "Vom" is indeed correct --
but, dear Zach, there is something else:
Single words in German titles are *not* (as in *never*) capitalized
except for names, nouns and the very first word in the title. In
other words, there is no special orthography for titles in the German
language. The correct title reads:
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her" (maybe with "Kanonische
Veränderungen über", "Partita über" or "Choralvorspiel über" before
that).
For German readers, reading German titles With Capitalized Words is
quite irritating -- a bit like speaking every word with a hard
accent, as in "Do. Get. It. Right.", and JUST SHORT OF YELLING.
When feeding to iTunes some CDs with German repertoire, the
application usually finds the titles in online databases -- but often
capitalized. I gave up on correcting them, but it keeps itching.
Best,
Friedrich
----------------------------------------------
Friedrich Sprondel
Journalist · Musikwissenschaftler
Hildastraße 48 · D-79102 Freiburg
Tel. 0761 / 285 96 22 · Mobil 0178 / 393 57 52
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