Talk:Requinto

Eb Clarinet is a "Requinto"?

I've been playing clarinets professionally and non-professionally for close to 40 years, including the Eb sopranino instrument, and this article is the first time I've ever seen the instrument refered to as a "requinto".

Accorging to the definition given in the article it would seem that this -could- be a legitimate name for the Eb clarinet. However, the way the article is written implies that this is a /common name/ for the Eb clarinet, which it most certainly is /not/. At least not in any English-speaking country.

Indeed, I am familiar with the term "requito," and have most often heard it used in reference to the Mariachi guitar that is tuned a fourth higher than the standard guitar. Again, the article seems to suggest that the term is more commonly used for a clarinet than for a guitar, which I also do not believe to be the case. 74.92.174.105 (talk) 23:01, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Couldn't agree more! The requinto guitar is the most common usage as far as I'm aware too, and simply assumed I didn't know enough about woodwind instruments! Inner strength from love (talk) 10:53, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Nowadays the term requinto more commonly refers to a small guitar than an Eb clarinet, but it may have--as far as I know--more commonly referred to an Eb clarinet in the nineteenth-century when the "pocketbook" Spanish-English dictionary cited was written. According to Diccionario Del Espanol (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2011), Requinto is a "Guitarra pequeña que se afina cinco semitonos más arriba que lo usual, muy común en México, Perú y Colombia [Small guitar tuned five semitones higher than usual, very common in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia]." In any case, the Wikipedia editor who wrote the passage in question clearly misunderstands his source. See my comments in the Meaning section below. TheScotch (talk) 06:06, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on Requinto. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060720162830/http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org:80/archives_03.aspx to http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/archives_03.aspx

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 01:00, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Meaning

Re: "'Requinto' was 19th-century Spanish for 'little clarinet'": This is a misreading of an incomplete source (a skimpy "pocket dictionary"). Requinto certainly is not Spanish for little clarinet. Rather it's a name given to small versions of various instruments, notably including the clarinet, in Spanish-speaking countries. That isn't the same thing. Quinto is Spanish for fifth, and re is Spanish--as well as English--for again. A requinto is an instrument a fifth again higher. That doesn't mean a perfect fifth higher; it means five semitones (in other words, a perfect fourth) higher. Thus an Eb (requinto) clarinet is a perfect fourth higher than a Bb clarinet, and a requinto guitar is a perfect fourth higher than a standard guitar.

This sort of thing happens over and over in Wikipedia, by the way. Wikipedia thinks--or pretends it thinks--it can profitably use amateur editors as long as it requires professional sources, but amateur editors don't know how to approach professional sources professionally and are often unable to think logically or to understand sources in their proper context. Thus Wikipedia is filled with misinformation, just as it would be if professional sources were not required. TheScotch (talk) 05:56, 1 November 2025 (UTC)

I have just removed the offending passage. It's misleading and adds nothing of value to the article. TheScotch (talk) 06:34, 1 November 2025 (UTC)