hope this helps

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Note added at 6 mins (2005-11-18 10:57:08 GMT)
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It is perfectly okay and reads well. You can keep it as it is.

The name contains a contradiction. The contradiction appears to be difficult to resolve. Now what don't you understand?

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Note added at 12 mins (2005-11-18 11:02:35 GMT)
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Hello PAS. I think the sentence is fine as it stands for musical criticism, except that "resolve" would seem more natural than just "solve".

but, in fact, it probably isn't

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Note added at 4 mins (2005-11-18 10:54:40 GMT)
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in the name in question there is a contradiction, and this contradiction seems to be difficult to solve

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Note added at 7 mins (2005-11-18 10:57:56 GMT)
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actually, I think it's okay as is; all I was suggesting is that you can use "it appears" or "it seems" instead.

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Note added at 16 mins (2005-11-18 11:06:34 GMT)
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sorry, of course, it would have to be "...which appears to be difficult to solve" --this is what I meant...but you know that!

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Note added at 38 mins (2005-11-18 11:29:09 GMT)
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Just for the record, "resolve" is perfect, but "solve" can also be used. You can find many references --and I mean books, not sites that may have been sloppily written.
Here's one: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=-ruyxp1MKg0C&pg=PA281...

The title is "Social Anthropology and Language," by Edwin Ardener, a native speaker, I believe. And you can easily find other refs on your own on "google print"

"There lurks in the name a contradiction, seemingly difficult to solve."
=>

A seemingly difficult contradiction lurks in the name

It isn't quite clear from your question exactly what is giving you trouble here. Are you asking us to polish up something you're trying to translate, or to clarify your understanding of it?

However, there IS a possible ambiguity in the sentence that only the following text may reveal.

The use of 'seemingly' here could mean one of two things:

1) The contradiction inherent in the name (I assume you've got that one: 'études' would be 'studies', possibly preliminary to painting a picture, whilst 'tableaux' suggest finished pictures) might appear at first sight to be contradictory, (but as the author goes on to explain, in fact it isn't...)

2) There appears to be an inherent contradiction in the name, (and the author goes on in some way to argue about this, without actually claiming that there isn't in fact any contradiction...)

IS it contradictory? I'm not sure... perhaps these musical 'études' are intended to convey visual 'images' --- that's certainly always the way I've viewed these pieces by Rachmaninov

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Note added at 18 mins (2005-11-18 11:09:11 GMT)
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Ah, now we know a bit more about what you wanted!

I'm with RB about the use of 'resolve', and I would also suggest you might try 'title' instead of 'name' --- for a piece of music or a painting (or indeed any other work of art) we most often talk about 'title', as in: "the author chose to title this work..." or "Now we're going to play a piece entitled..."

I would also like to see 'the' replaced by either 'this' or 'that', depending on the surrounding context, unless, of course, it is such as to absolutely demand 'the'. "There lurks in the title..." could be suggesting that it lurks there, rather than somewhere else in the piece, whereas I think "There lurks in this (or: that) title..." makes it crystal clear that we are talking about "this particular title the composer has chosen"

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Note added at 2 hrs 15 mins (2005-11-18 13:06:14 GMT)
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Thanks, PAS, for your latest added remark regarding the use of the name "études-tableaux" as a genre, rather than a specific title; as key surrounding context, this of course then totally justifies the use of 'the'.


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Note added at 7 hrs 13 mins (2005-11-18 18:03:32 GMT)
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...and also 'name', as you quite rightly point out.

In essence, then, there's really nothing in your sentence that needs 'smoothing', IMHO.


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Note added at 7 hrs 23 mins (2005-11-18 18:14:06 GMT)
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To contribute my three ha'p'orth to the interesting (if peripheral!)debate about irreconcilable vs. unreconcilable.

Naturally, I am fully aware that the word in un- DOES indeed exist (and has done so since the late 16th century), and the mere fact that the revered OED says that it is now 'rare' is no reason for not using it (on the contrary, perhaps it needs reviving); we are all aware that traditional dictionaries are to some extent only representative of a 'frozen' moment in time, and living language moves a lot faster than the OUP!

However, using another tool of the modern era, Google (which despite its many shortcomings can indeed be useful at times), which to some extent could be considered to reflect trends in modern usage (since it does take into account a great deal of very dynamic, up-to-date material, and is probably weighted against older texts), I was interested to note that irreconcilable 'scored' almost 2,000,000 hits, whereas unreconcilable ony managed around 29,000 --- not quite 'nul points' by Eurovision standards, but a surprising ratio nonetheless.

However, my primary objection to the use of 'unreconcilable' is more to do with euphony --- to my mind, the sentence reads so much more smoothly with the almost-elided "...seemingly irreconcilable..." than it does with "...seemingly unreconcilable...", that alone would discourage me personally from using it.

there lurks in the name a seemingly unreconcilable contradiction

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Note added at 21 mins (2005-11-18 11:12:17 GMT)
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You've got your defendant, who has to have some element of genuine mystery at
the core, some unreconcilable contradiction. Wealthy kidnap victim and ...
www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/articles/A8330-2005Mar28.html

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Note added at 28 mins (2005-11-18 11:19:08 GMT)
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or
there lurks in the name a seemingly IRreconcilable contradiction

i hope it sounds a lot smoother :-)

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Note added at 57 mins (2005-11-18 11:47:49 GMT)
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also a bbc link with 'unreconcilable':

The BBC website for Hereford and Worcester. Listings, reviews and news of Clubs, gigs and music. ... Underworld mixed elements of what were unreconcilable styles including ambient, house, techno and dub with pop ...
www.bbc.co.uk.../songwriting_competition_judges.shtml

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Note added at 1 hr 2 mins (2005-11-18 11:53:03 GMT)
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to dusty: the bbc link is dated 21 june 2004, and i understand bbc articles are written by educated native speakers of english.

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Note added at 7 hrs 25 mins (2005-11-18 18:15:55 GMT)
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oh, the dusty's 'disagree' has been removed.
i also find it rather ermmm ... - 'picky' of RB to disagree with me on such a technicality as un- / ir- reconcilable. i think he should have agreed with me that my suggestion sounded the smoothes of them all :-) and pointed out the ir- option instead, unless, of course, his motives were not linguistic.

also, my right to agree or disagree on this site has been removed without any warning. how very strange!

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Note added at 7 hrs 27 mins (2005-11-18 18:17:41 GMT)
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smoothesT :-)

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Note added at 1 day 9 hrs 10 mins (2005-11-19 20:00:52 GMT)
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oh, in case you were wondering - in the eng-eng section non-native speakers are not supposed to question any english texts believed to be written by natives - hence the attempts to EXPLAIN the meaning (instead of improving it) and arrogant statements like 'what is it that you don't understand?' etc. and even emphasising how wonderful the contortedness is in this particular genre etc. it never occurred to them (well, at least in the beginning) that it was written by you and you just wanted to see if it was ok or a bit contorted :-) . pathetic, when you come to think of it, isn't it?