Talk:Die Schöpfung (The Creation) (Joseph Haydn)

English title

Much as I agree that English should serve as a lingua franca on cpdl, I'm not quite sure this instance is the most adequate translation. Die Schöpfung takes an article in German, but even as a non-native English speaker (just an obnoxious teacher of it), I'm not quite sure the article is warranted in English. A noun of general reference doesn't usually take an article, in my understanding: "[---] Traffic is very busy at that time of day" or "[---] People think it's easy to live a life like that". No English speaker would contemplate using an article in those cases, I think. Putseys (1994) says "omission of the overt the-form of the classifiying definite article is possible with a singular count noun when the NP [...] denotes a unique role", which I think applies to Creation. joachim 18:00, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

In almost all English language references that I've checked, this oratorio is indeed referred to as The Creation, whether the definite article is warranted or not. -- Chuck_talk Giffen_♫ 18:19, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Almost? My curiosity is aroused! I'm not entirely happy and agonized over naming the page The Creation instead of Die Schöpfung. The issue isnt really one of a lingua franca but of which title is the 'original': the commissioned libretto sung at the premiere, or Haydn's 'working version'. It's a very hard call; even US performers sometimes opt for the German text as able to more closely convey the composer's intentions to an English-speaking audience. Richard Mix 05:16, 3 October 2009 (UTC)