Duet (pronounced doo-et or dyoo-et (non-U))
(1) In
music, a composition for two voices or instruments.
(2) An
action or activity performed by a pair of closely connected individuals.
(3) A
pair or couple, especially one that is harmonious or elegant.
1730–1740: From the Italian duet (a short musical composition for two voices), from duo (two) and a diminutive of the earlier duett & duetto, the construct being du(o) (duet) + -etto (from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, an alternative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics). The ultimate source was the Proto-Italic duō, from the primitive Indo-European dwóh. The French adopted duet before the English in 1740 although the noun may have been used in English from circa 1724; as a verb (to perform a duet), use was first noted in 1822. The technical form duettino (short, unpretentious duet) emerged by 1839. Duet is a noun & verb, duetting & duetted are verbs and duettist is a noun; the noun plural is duets.
Madam Butterfly
Although
The Alfa Romeo (type 105/115) Spider was continuous production between
1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the
memorable Osso di Seppia (round-tail,
literally “cuttlefish”) coachwork. After
1970, the Spider gained a Kamm tail which increased luggage capacity and
presumably also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always
coveted the cigar-shaped original. One
often misunderstood aspect of the Kamm tail is that the aerodynamic benefits
are realized only if the flat, vertical surface created was no more than about
50% of the total area of the vehicle (as viewed directly from the back). That’s why even designs which don’t conform
to the requirements are often casually referred to as “Kamm tails”.
The Kamm
tail (also known as the Kammback) was named after German engineer &
aerodynamicist Professor Wunibald Kamm (1893–1966) who during the 1930s
pioneered the shape, his work assisted greatly by some chicanery within the
Nazi military-industrial complex which enabled the FKFA (Forschungsinstituts für Kraftfahrwesen und Fahrzeugmotoren Stuttgart
(Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines Stuttgart)
institute he established in 1930s to secure funding to construct a full-sized
wind tunnel equipped with a two-part steel treadmill in the floor and an 8.8 metre
(350 inch) diameter axial fan, able to drive air at up to 400 km/h (250 mph). What the two concentric floor turntables
allowed was that as well as enabling turbulence to be studied from the side on
the running steel belt, but slip angles were also possible. At the time, it was the most modern structure
of its kind on the planet and its very existence was owed to the priority
afforded by the Nazis to re-armament, especially the development of modern
airframes, most of the money eventually coming from the Reichs-Luftfahrt-Ministerium (RLM, the State Air Ministry).
While
Professor’s Kamm’s work on automobile shapes continued, increasingly the
facility became focused on military contracts, contributing to the
extraordinary range of novel aircraft designs, some revolutionary and most of
which would never reach production. All
of this ceased in July 1944 when the facility was severely damaged in air-raids
by Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command, a costly campaign which one mission
incurred a loss-ration of 20% and it wasn’t until the late 1940s that
reconstruction began after it was acquired by Daimler-Benz AG which enlarged
and modernized the machinery, the early fruits including the 300 SL (the W194, first
gullwing coupé) which won the 1952 Le Mans 24 hour race and the W196R “streamliner”
Grand Prix race cars which created such a sensation in 1954. Although he wasn’t part of “Operation
Paperclip” (the US project which secured (by various means including the
military “smuggling” them into the country despite many being wanted by those investigating
war crimes and crimes against humanity) Professor Kann was acknowledged as one
of the world’s leading authorities on turbulence and between 1947-1953 was part
of the team working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Some of what was undertaken then remains classified
but it can be assumed it was all related to military projects and what would
later become the space program.
Alfa Romeo in
1965 conducted a competition to find a suitable name for the little roadster
and in those days that meant running advertisements in newspapers (which people
actually paid for and read) to which readers responded by cutting out and
filling in the coupon, writing in their suggestion, putting it in an envelope
on which they wrote the address, buying and affixing a stamp and putting
envelope in mailbox. The winning entry was
"Duetto" which Alfa Romeo's directors liked because it summed up the
romantic essence of a machine definitely built for a couple. Unfortunately, for some tiresome legal reason
relating to an existing trademark, it couldn't officially be used but for decades,
among the cognoscenti, it's always been called the Duetto.
Track of the Kamm, Alfa Romeo Spiders: 1973 Series 2 (1970-1983, left), 1984 (Series 3 (1983-1990, centre) and 1992 Series 4 (1990-1993, right). Things got worse before they got better.
To keep the
tiresome lawyers at bay, when released at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966,
the car was known as the Spider 1600, the advertising making clear it was
intended to be a practical sports car, usable year-round rather than something intended
for competition. Among those who like to
call them Duettos, there’s a sub-set of pedants who like to point out that
while all Duettos are round-tails, not all round-tails are Duettos because in
1967, Alfa Romeo introduced the more powerful 1750 Spider Veloce and the less
potent 1300 Junior, the former positioned a notch above the original, the latter
one below. That’s too nerdy for most who
prefer to form factions based upon the tail treatment and surprisingly perhaps,
many do seem to prefer the appearance of the abbreviated Kamm-tail and, again
surprisingly, that included even the editors of the US magazine Road &
Track (R&T), a publication in the 1960s inclined to see anything Italian
through a rose-tint, called the coda lunga (round tail) “a contrived design with meaningless styling
gimmicks.” Probably much of
the appeal of the original is as a period piece in the same way the exaggerated
fins on the early Sunbeam Alpines have some allure although few would claim their
pruning didn’t improve the look.
Lindsay Lohan duetting: On stage with Duran Duran (left) and spinning the vinyl with former special friend, DJ Samantha Ronson.
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