Helm was referring to an Oregonian:
"I had for several years the journal of Jackson Matthews, the brother of my
great-great grandfather. [He] didn't write much.[A]bruptly he announce[s] in
[an entry] dated ...1849 that ... he was off to Oregon [becoming] the most
powerful person in the Oregon State legislature for a while. ... [He] would
probably like you to keep the Oregon state song just the way it is."
Indeed. Although, as Popper might say (or then not), it is difficult to prove
(or disprove, for that matter) a claim to the effect that something "would
probably" have been the case." In any case, I was wondering if The Oregonian
(nevermind Oregonlive, which is not really an 'alternative', as it has been
suggested) should not have used 'implicature'.
For Ritchie had written:
"I discovered that the opening lyrics of Oregon’s state song are, “Land of the
Empire Builders, Land of the Golden West; Conquered and held by free men,
Fairest and the best.” There’s an editorial suggesting it might be time to
change the wording."
I wonder if Grice would not read that to read:
i. There is an utterer of an editorial IMPLICATING that it might be
[implicature: 'high,' to use Scots -- cfr. 'high tea'] time to change the
wording [to them [sic] opening lyrics (implicating, not the closing ones)]."
Let's see what the lyricist's implicature -- composers (i.e. those who set
lyrics to music) ALSO implicate -- e.g. cfr. Porter, "but how strange, the
change, from major to minor," where the implicature is that a Dorian mode is
all that the ceremony of farewell is about.
iii. land of the empire builders
land of the golden west
conquered and held by free men
fairest and the best.
The editorial's implicature may be Puccinian in sort. He saw David Belasco's
"The girl of the golden west" and seeing that Belasco had inspired Puccini in
his earlier play, "Madam Butterfly: a tragedy of Japan: a one-act play," he
found the second play promising. Puccini struggled with the Italian for "Golden
west". There are manuscripts that read, "Fanciulla dell'occidente Americano".
In the end, Puccini (or rather his librettists) opted for keeping 'west'.
It might be argued that 'free men' is neutral, rather than gender-specific, and
that the aforementioned 'fanciulla' is included in the Venn class. A more
serious objection is that the aforementioned fanciulla settled in California,
rather. From this, Grice might infer (or imply) that the opening lines could
apply to California, or Berkeley. Being a philosopher, he was fascinated to
learn, when he bought a home overlooking the San Franscico Bay on the Berkeley
hills,
(a) that his township had been named after a philosopher -- who, incidentally,
had also spoken of the empire.
(b) that the motto of Berkeley is by Berkeley ("Do not multiply senses beyond
necessity -- and proper names do not have 'sense', but the first Berkeley refer
to the town, the second to the bishop). It's from Verses on the Prospect of
Planting Arts and Learning in America, and it has been set to music:
iv. westward the course of empire takes its way;
the first four Acts already past,
a fifth shall close the Drama with the day;
time's noblest offspring is the last.
When Puccini set the lyrics to Belasco's "Girl of the Golden West" to music he
was looking for local colour and came up with Compton Races, which features in
the score.
Puccini kept a Journal where he expands on why he stuck with 'west':
"L'origine della parola "ovest" deriva dal francese "ouest,"a sua volta
derivato dal tedesco "west" che discende dallo svedese "vester" e dal gotico
"vasi." "Vasi" deriva probabilmente dalla stessa radice sanscrita "vas-ati"
("notte") da cui discende il latino "ves-per" ("sera") per andare a indicare il
punto in cui tramonta il sole. La parola "vespri" è rimasta per l'appunto in
italiano ad indicare le preghiere del tramonto. Nelle lingue romanze si unì
l'articolo alla parola "west" e questa divenne "ovest". So there!"
Cheers,
Speranza
