Friends, I have a friend who is a (musical) conductor and he is about to conduct a Smetana overture. He asked me to translate some directions written into the score and my friend sent me "exactly" this: "Zachovano jen ve hlasech ve Smetanove partiture tyto nastroje nejsou. Hlas prave strany Hlas z leve strany na desku" I see this as: Maintain only (in) the voices in the Smetana score not the instruments. Voice on the right side Voice on from the left side of the desk [desk = conductor's podium?] This doesn't make sense to me. But could it mean, that instead of having all the violins, 1st and 2nd, on "one" side, have the 1st violins on the right side (of the conductor's desk) and the 2nd violins on the left side (of the conductor's desk)? Or is there some missing from what I was sent. Any help would be much appreciated, and many thanks beforehand for any help, Dan
wer, Many thanks! It's just as ambiguous as I thought. In English the work "desk" can either refer to 1.) the conductor's podium, or 2.) the music stands used by the instrumentalists. I'll check with my friend for further context. Thanks a lot, Dan
Neither is common meaning of “deska” in Czech. “Na desku” is in accusative, that is it doesn’t express location like locative. It’s either direction (onto desk) or some verbal rection. In Czech we say “to play on a musical instrument”, so “na desku” could mean “to play a musical instrument using directly its sounding board” (knock on the sounding board?).
wer, It is very common to "knock" on the soundboard of a violin. But, since my conductor friend has not gotten back to me, I'll have to wait and see where exactly in the score that marking is. Many thanks, once again, Dan
