Ms Word

Every time I type “clairons” into Word, it “corrects” it to say “clarions.” Arg! Ok, so they refer to the same thing, but one is the word I mean, and one is not! One is english, the other is French. Ever heard of a “clarion call,” maybe just as a metaphor? It’s a short, narrow-bore trumpet. Of course, the modrn trumpet is narrow-bore and short, so that’s why the word only exists now in metaphor. Old trumpets were long and wide bore. Valves didn’t exist, so if you wanted to get a lot of chromatic notes, you played upper overtones on a big horn. You know hoe you need fewer and fewer valves as you get high pitch on trumpets? this was how they were played, back in the day. (the day here means the renaissance) Alphorns are played like this, incidentally.

why would i insist on using the french spelling? well, clairons might also mean bugles made out of cow horns, used to signal armies. Or, the might mean the upper range of a (medieval, and thus long and wide bore) trumpet. Dahlqvist states, “The precise meaning of these terms may never be understood completely.” so if the meaning of the damn word is in dispute, I want to spell it like it’s spelled in the play!
It’s due tomorrow. I’m in the middle of page 6. i need ten pages.
I want an alphorn. they’re fun.