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EveryLingua

 ·  26 lists  ·  929 words

Art and culture

The words for talking about a work.

What holds these lists together

Lists for what is said when a painting, a play, a concert or a recording is not just seen but discussed: the professional terms of painting, music, theatre, photography and print. You stand in front of a work with everyday words and lack the ones its makers use. Many look familiar to an English speaker because they share a Latin or Greek root, and that makes them seem easier than they are. O ensaio is an essay but also a rehearsal, and o ensaio geral is the dress rehearsal; a peça is a play as well as a piece; and the stage itself is o palco, a word with no English relative.

The 26 lists

C1Fine artWhat is in the picture, how it was made, who owned it.47 wordsC1Music: the technical wordsPitch, bar, key, line-up.48 wordsC1Theatre and the stageRehearsal, technical work, audience — from the read-through to the get-out.63 wordsC1Textiles and fashionCloth, pattern, fitting — and how a collection comes about.44 wordsC1Photography and compositionAperture, exposure, the build of the picture — and the words for talking about it.46 wordsC1Typography and printingType, setting, sheet — the words a printer uses from the single letter to the finished print run.38 wordsC1Ceramics and potteryFrom the clay to the firing, and the faults that turn up along the way.37 wordsC1Journalism and researchSource, proof, right of reply — and the point at which 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 right of return, and the words for it.25 wordsC2Opera and singingScore, pit and voice — the language spoken behind the curtain.26 wordsC2Literary studiesNarrative voice, character speech, motif — tools for reading rather than verdicts.42 wordsC2BookbindingWhat makes a block of paper go on opening for a long time.26 wordsC2Comics and the graphic novelA way of telling a story that happens between the pictures.24 wordsC2Organ buildingAn instrument that is built into a building.52 wordsC2Museums and conservationHoldings, condition, loans — the work behind the display case.34 wordsC2Screenplay and dramaturgyTurning point, conflict, resolution — and the quarrel about format.36 wordsC2MuseologyA museum collects not things but responsibility.25 wordsC2Film editingWhere a cut falls, and why nobody notices it.27 wordsC2Building conservationKeeping the old fabric of a building rather than replacing it with new.34 wordsC2Art historyAttribution, provenance, iconography — how a picture is questioned.40 wordsC2Architecture and building historyStructure, articulation, and what a house says to the street.32 wordsC2Stage technologyWhat hangs above the heads of the audience.20 wordsC2Sound engineeringWhy something sounds good, and what is to blame when it does not.35 wordsC2Music productionFrom the recording to the finished mix.31 wordsC2RestorationAn intervention 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.