Hi, first of all thank you for this amazing community.
I’m using Italian-language isntrument names and I’ve encountered three issues so far.
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The English horn uses the English abbreviation. Corno inglese should be something like C.I., not Eh.
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Trumpets and trombones (tromba/trombe and trombone/tromboni) could be mistaken since ones are abbreviated as Tr and the others as Trb. Other potentially misleading abbreviations are Vl vs. Vla
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I don’t understand why some abbreviations end in “.” and others not (e.g. “Tr” vs. “Trb.”).
One suggestion I have (esp. for issue no.2) would be to use the names and abbreviations that Stravinsky employed in the Rite of Spring (with the clear-cut distinction between “-” and “.”). If you’re interested, I can provide a list I use for my Italian names and abbreviations in Sibelius, modelled after Stravinsky.
Thank you
I can help (I think – it’s my understanding anyway) with the question about full stops: in English, the rule is that if the word ends with the last letter of the abbreviation, then it doesn’t get a full stop, otherwise it does – so vl. for violin but vla for viola.
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Thanks. But I think this still doesn’t explain the “Tr” vs “Trb.”
To avoid confusion, please let me say that I usually find “Trombe” abbreviated as “Trb.” and “Tromboni” as “Trbn.”.
As for the “Viole”, I find them as “Vle”.
It seems to be common practice to add a dot if the name is cut in the middle, and avoid it if the abbreviation ends with the final vowel. So, “Violini”, “Viole”, “Violoncelli” and “Contrabbassi” are usually, respectively, “Vni”, “Vle”, “Vc.”, “Cb.”.
In Berio sometimes I see a different style, and a dot even after the final vowel (with “Vl.” for “Violini”, and “Vle.” or “Vla.” for “Viole”). But in this case I suspect an influence of him being multilingual, and speaking often in English (even at home).
Paolo