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EveryLingua

 ·  26 lists  ·  929 words

Art and culture

The words in which a work is discussed.

What holds these lists together

Lists for what gets said when a painting, a play, a concert or a recording is not just taken in but discussed: the working words of painting, music, theatre, photography and print. They belong together because they share one situation — you stand before a work with the everyday words for it, but not the ones used by the people who made it. And because so many share Latin or Greek roots with English, they look simpler than they are. La partition is the score, not a dividing wall; la répétition is a rehearsal; and un tableau is simply a painting, where English keeps the word for a posed scene.

The 26 lists

C1Music: the technical wordsPitch, bar, key, and the forces on the platform.48 wordsC1Theatre and stageRehearsal, technical crew, audience — from the read-through to the get-out.63 wordsC1Textiles and fashionCloth, pattern, fitting — and how a collection comes about.44 wordsC1Typography and printingType, setting, sheet — from the single letter to the print run.38 wordsC1Ceramics and potteryFrom the clay to the firing, and the faults that appear along the way.37 wordsC1Journalism and researchSources, evidence, the right of reply — and when a story does not stand up.42 wordsC2DanceAn art whose works are stored only in bodies.30 wordsC2Bookselling and publishingA product with a fixed price and an open return.25 wordsC2Opera and singingScore, pit and voice — the language behind the curtain.26 wordsC2Literary studiesNarrative voice, character speech, motif — tools for reading rather than verdicts.42 wordsC2Organ buildingAn instrument built into a building.52 wordsC2BookbindingWhat makes a block of paper go on opening for years.26 wordsC2Comics and the graphic novelA form of storytelling that happens between the pictures.24 wordsC1The visual artsWhat is in the picture, how it was made, who owned it.47 wordsC1Photography and composing the pictureAperture, exposure, composition — and how to talk about them.46 wordsC2Museums and conservationCollection, condition, loans — the work behind the case.34 wordsC2Screenwriting and dramaturgyTurning point, conflict, resolution — and the argument about format.36 wordsC2MuseologyA museum does not collect things but responsibility.25 wordsC2Film editingWhere a cut falls, and why nobody notices it.27 wordsC2Building conservationKeeping the old fabric rather than replacing it with new.34 wordsC2Art history and attributionAttribution, provenance, iconography: how a picture is questioned.40 wordsC2Architecture and building historyStructure, articulation, and what a building says to the street.32 wordsC2Stage technologyWhat hangs above the heads of the audience.20 wordsC2Sound engineeringWhy something sounds good, and what is wrong when it does not.35 wordsC2Music productionFrom the first take to the finished mix.31 wordsC2Conservation and restorationA treatment that has to be capable of being undone.25 words

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.

LevelWordsShare
B210 %
C136439 %
C256461 %

Practise this category

Multiple choice and gaps, across all 26 lists and all 929 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.