Great photo, Syd! Where did you come across that?

Some might be interested in the following:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j20/italian.php

In particular perhaps we should note the correct Italian spelling of serraglio mentioned in the article. Controfagotto and contrabbasso also manage to trip a few composers up. The Italian word nowadays spelt leggero is spelt leggiero in most musical contexts. Looks like an older form to me. And if there's an excuse for Stravinsky's "trombono" I'd love to know what it might be.

You probably already all know that viola is the only feminine string instrument and thus gets sola, tutte and unite where the others get solo, tutti, uniti. I read once upon a time that for certain instruments 'mute' is sordino and for others it's sordina - the Italian wikipedia in fact only mentions sordina. More research required there.

Personally I think obligato looks so much better in English than obbligato that in face of the distinguished precedents for it and of all the other things we do to Italian musical terms I don't see a reason for those who prefer it that way not to use it.

"Obligato" looks to me no more English - and even less Italian - than does "obbligato". In English we more commonly use the "-tion" or "-ory" terminations. That said, I have never objected (as such) to the dropping of a b as has been widely used (and I gave up the battle to have my students over the years spell the word in its authentic form!). This nit-picking only started as a joke on my part, but I was somewhat annoyed for it to be imputed by the starter of this thread that I was in error.

Baz