[mb-style] Should we change Classical Rules?

[Alexander Dupuy]

Christopher Aillon replies to Dave Smey:

>
>Clearly you aren't a classical music fan.  Many composers have such a 
>wide array of material that "I'm in the mood for some Bach" might as 
>well be "I'm in the mood to listen to music."  Which Bach?  C.P.E 
>perhaps.  Maybe C.F, or J.C.  Seriously, classical *connoisseurs* (not 
>"fans" or those who listen to it in passing like most people) know 
>precisely what they want to listen to.  There aren't many of them 
>though.  It's a shame that classical music has degraded to such in the 
>public's eyes.
>
>
>
>>> All Bach recordings are considered
>>> somewhat interchangeable, or belonging to the same class.
>
>
>
>I think you have just disqualified yourself as having a real opinion for 
>classical music.


Without speaking to the correctness or accuracy of your arguments, I'd just point out that you're not likely to advance your cause very far with attacks like these, especially when you direct them at someone who is proposing a change that brings the MB database more towards your preference for performer-emphasis (to make this perfectly clear, you are attacking your ally).

Dave has proposed that we change the release artist credits for recital albums to reflect a primary performer, rather than the composer.  From your arguments, I think you would agree with this.  While you may prefer to go even further and make this change for all classical albums, that won't be happening any time real soon.  Others have argued for this (see the ClassicalStyleGuideDiscussion page on the wiki, aka CSGD), but have never achieved consensus for it.  I will note that this will probably happen *eventually* but only after we have implemented the NextGenerationSchema split of ReleaseArtist and CreditedArtist.

I think that it is very likely that we could achieve near-term consensus on this change for recital albums that would otherwise be Various Artists (i.e. multiple composers).  (For the record, I support this change).  There is even a chance that there might be consensus for recital albums that highlight performers but only feature the work of one composer, although it will be tricky to get wording that everybody is happy with, and that doesn't leave things so ambiguous that we end up with voting or edit wars.  But posts like yours make it *less* likely that this will happen.

To return to substantive discussion on the details and merits of the proposal, I would take Dave's wording:


>Recitals by a particular artist: In cases
>where a release contains works from multiple composers but all works are
>attributable to a single group or performer, that group or performer may
>be designated the ReleaseArtist, with each TrackArtist assigned to the
>appropriate composer."


and modify it to also include recitals that have only works by a single composer but avoid some of the ambiguity in Frederic's original proposals:


Recitals by a single performer: In cases where a release contains only work(s) performed primarily by a single group or individual, credited prominently on the release, that artist may be designated the ReleaseArtist if any one of the following conditions is met:

* The works are composed by different artists, and the album would otherwise be attributed to VariousArtists

* The tracks on the release, while all composed by one artist, are parts of multiple works, several of which are not present in their complete form or are drawn from different groups ("selections" or "highlights")

* The work(s) have all been arranged, remixed, or otherwise substantially modified by the primary performer

In the first case, the album should be entered as a VA release with the composers as the track artists (unless the third case applies).

In the second case, the album should be entered as a VA release with the composer as the track artist for each of the tracks (unless the third case applies).

In the third case, the album should be entered as a non-VA release, and the composer(s) should be attributed to the album (if only one composer) or the tracks (if more than one composer) only by "composed by" AdvancedRelationships


The last case is specifically intended to cover releases like "Switched-on Bach" (http://musicbrainz.org/album/0ccc0b2a-6e9f-467d-8bb5-ff0d329f52fb.html) and other performances of classical music by non-classical performers, although I expect that in many cases, as in that one, the second case would cover them as well.

@alex