[mb-style] Bach passions and CSG

[Leiv Hellebo]

Frederic Da Vitoria wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 12:17 AM, Leiv Hellebo wrote:
> I agree with Paul; and, for once, I disagree with Leiv. Although I 
> understand the redundancy is annoying, I feel that we must accept some 
> limitations of mp3 players...

Sorry for not having an mp3 player ;)

I have one player which also plays ogg, and when I last used it two 
years ago I think it allowed me to show the album name (possibly by 
keeping albums in separate and named folders).

What limitations do I break?

> 
> ...and more importantly of the MB web site! If I was looking for one 
> part of the Matthew Passion, I'd probably enter "BWV 244" in the track 
> search box, and I'd completely miss your release!
> 

You'd miss a lot more than mine: Half of the SMPs do not have BWV 244 in 
the track titles.

And: My two SMPs have together 103 + 101 = 204 tracks, so you probably 
want to start with searching for releases, not tracks :)

> There is nothing indicating in your current release what work each track 
> belongs to. Of course, any classical editor with a little knowledge 
> would guess all the tracks actually belong to BWV 244, but imagine the 
> same procedure applied to some completely unknown work from some obscure 
> composer.  Impossible to guess if the release title is the name of the
> work or the commercial name of a compilation, or if each track actually 
> belongs to a single work or is an entirely separate work.

If some label spent a fortune to have professional scholars and 
performers dig out and record unknown stuff from obscure composers, then 
most likely it would also result in online references that would be helpful.

At MB, we can use the annotations.

> 
> If you generalized this procedure, how would you enter (in the current 
> state of the MB database) 
> http://musicbrainz.org/release/86a78b3d-08d6-4b42-990b-30463b66fc98.html ?
> 

My mail concerned Bach passions. It is not so common to mention the BWVs 
for them (and I know I have Händel oratorios which do not mention the 
HWVs - I recently checked some - yet this is *never* a problem).

I can very well see myself adding those Händel cantatas exactly as they 
are on that release.

For Bach cantatas it is perhaps possible to shorten it more, as the 
religious ones are titled after the first text line:

BWV 172, I. Coro: Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!
II. Recitativo: Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten
III. Aria: Heiligste Dreieinigkeit

or something...

But there is an official cantata style guide (*guide*, not rule) which I 
used to be satisfied with, so I am not suggesting anything else here now.

Personally I have until recently added voice indications to recitatives 
and arias, but this is better done with ARs IMO.



Leiv