Expert: David Froom - 11/21/2007

Question
hello, at the moment I'm getting into classical music and I think that one of the reasons I put that off for so long is because the titles and tags for classical works are so confusing. I understand that it's a strange question, but how exactly am I to tag these works?

1.Should the actual composer be in the artist space or the orchestra/instrumentalist who performed on the recording that I am to tag? I suppose tags like "Debussy Wind Quintet" are not accurate. And I'm wondering if for instance writing the pianist's name instead of the composer's name is acceptable or not and which is more appropriate?

2.Also, the names of the works... For instance, Claude Debussy's "La Mer", should each movement be separately tagged and should "La Mer" be written in front or are the titles of the movements enough? In other words, is it "La Mer : De l'aube à midi sur la mer" or maybe just "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" or something completely different?

I'm trying to figure this out on my own as well, by reading on each particular piece, but I just thought I'd ask an expert. And I am sorry if the questions are too extensive. I hope you'll reply anyway. Thank you. ^_^

Answer
Hi,
You can really tag them any way you like, depending on what you want to look for.  In the old days, when I simply was looking for a way of putting my LPs in some order, I chose to do it chronologically according to date of composers birth (since I would choose what I wanted to listen to by period more than composer).  

Another way is to focus on composer name.  Or by genre (opera, choral, symphonic, piano solo, chamber music, etc).  Or by performer by group or soloist name.

As for the specifics of computer tagging:

You'll find when you put CDs into iTunes, that the tagging is inconsistent.  Sometimes composer names are first name first, sometimes first name last.  Sometimes middle names are a letter, sometimes spelled out.  A single composer will be identified in a lot of different ways.  

What this means is you get to choose.  What I do is try to get all the composer names to match.  Then I go by title given to the specific work, but don't bother with single movement titles.  So, from your example, La Mer should be in front of all movement titles.  And movement titles could be left out (La Mer, I;  La Mer, II).  This is fine to do.

I am a composer, so I prefer composer name more than performer name.  But I do understand that some folks would rather have all their Bernstein recordings together, or all their Karajan recordings together (etc.).  

It really comes down to how you want to be able to find things -- composer name, work name, performer name, movement name.  

To check to see how this is done by professional librarians, you might go to the website of a big library -- like New York Public Library.  You can see how all the recordings are listed and tagged.

NYPL has a website:  http://catnyp.nypl.org

The link to a recording that includes La Mer is:  http://catnyp.nypl.org/record=b7589674

Hope this helps.

David Froom

Hope I've helped.