Talk:Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65

Labelling on the table of movements
I think this would affect many articles, but the headings for the columns in the table of movements could clearer, and some of the categories need to be more parallel. To my mind, the heading "time" is just not clear (without looking at the items in the column). We should replace "time" with "metre". The heading "vocal" should be replaced with "voices" to improve clarity and to make it parallel with the headings "winds" and "strings". The last is less important, but it would be more accurate to use "opening words" or something like that, than "title". --HenryPurcell (talk) 14:51, 13 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you for thinking about it. Our article is Time signature, not metre. "Voices" would be fine with me, BUT it's most often just one voice singing in one movement, in some cantatas, only one voice is singing throughout, and "Vocal" and "Instrumental" are the terms used in the infobox. The movements are known by their "opening word", a phrase I never heard so far, or incipit, a phrase our readers may have to look up, so "title" seems fine in a general way. What do you think of one introductory explanation of all these? Word it here and discuss? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:54, 13 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your reply. Here are my responses to various terms. "Time signature", which you mention is the name of the Wikipedia subject article, would be fine. I suggested metre because it is concise and would also accurately convey the intended meaning. "Time" by itself is ambiguous, and would suggest either the historical era (or date) or the duration. "Time" by itself does not convey the meaning of "time signature". I do not think that having the plural "voices" as the designation for a category would be at all problematic for situations where only one voice was in the category. Syntactically using an adjective, i.e. vocal, here lacks parallelism to the other categories and to what is being categorized. Rather, the category should be a noun or noun phrase, such as "voices" or "vocal forces". "Title" is confusing, because hymns often have names (= titles) for the tunes, which are independent of the text. The term "first line" is often used for what is being designated in these tables. "Title" implies that a name has been given, as opposed to simply using he "opening words" or "first line". By the way, "opening words" is not common phrase, but rather a concise, accurate description of what is being shown in the category. I'm not sure whether I understand the question about what I "think of one introductory explanation of all these?" Does this mean an introductory explanation for the terms used at the tops of the tables? Would such an explanation appear before each table? I think it would be preferable to use designations that need as little explanation as possible. --HenryPurcell (talk) 06:17, 1 April 2018 (UTC)