# Book of carefully-edited songs, with CD: what Works?

**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/book-of-carefully-edited-songs-with-cd-what-works/132000
**Category:** Style
**Tags:** arrangement, editing, works
**Created:** [September 12, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/book-of-carefully-edited-songs-with-cd-what-works/132000 "2016-09-12T03:11:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 9

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### Author: ![Jim\_DeLaHunt](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/53a042/32.png) [@Jim\_DeLaHunt](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Jim_DeLaHunt)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/book-of-carefully-edited-songs-with-cd-what-works/132000/9 "2016-09-12T18:44:09Z")

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> [@derobert](#):
>
> I would suggest putting them in as new works.

Thank you for the validation. That’s what I’m leaning towards also.

> [@derobert](#):
>
> I think the style guidelines could use some clarification (and probably changes) in this area.

I agree. It would be nice if that could get a push from this discussion.

> [@derobert](#):
>
> Translations get another work entry. There is a checkbox for that in the has later version relationship, I believe. The translator gets credited there. There won’t be any recordings of that work, but it strikes me as “necessary for correct relationships”.

OK, I like that. It will get tedious to enter 26 translation-works by hand, however. Maybe this doesn’t happen until there’s a web app feature or a user script to do the repetitious work.

> [@derobert](#):
>
> “The Work entity doesn’t seem to relate directly to editions of printed scores.” I disagree. It does (at least as far as the scores are different musically…

I like the idea of being able to record relationships between music scores. However, we have to define better what it means to be “different musically”. Thickness of paper doesn’t count. Fixing errors doesn’t count, even though it might result in a difference in performed sound?  
What about the difference between orchestral parts (played by the orchestra) and a piano-vocal reduction (from which the chorus sings)? And what if the chorus is using a hodge-podge of four different editions of vocal scores? I’ve sung Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with exactly this mix of music score editions.

> [@derobert](#):
>
> The transposition—I don’t know….

Agreed, that’s a tough decision. In my case, there are two Releases with two different music scores, each giving the same arias in different transpositions. The transposition is the essential reason for there being two Releases, not just one. Same Work, or different Works?

> [@ListMyCDs.com](#):
>
> …When editions aren’t well known (or considered important) releases don’t usually mention about them. There’s no use for edition works if editors aren’t able to identify them. I would recommend adding only works for editions which can be easily identified. Same reason for not adding separate works for transposed versions.…

I like using “editors are able to identify them” as a good rule for Works on MusicBrainz. It resonates with my intuition that MusicBrainz is really “RecordedmusicBrainz” with a bit of “BiographyBrainz” built in.

> [@ListMyCDs.com](#):
>
> When service is more ready we could consider adding printed score releases to BookBrainz. I believe it would be the best place to list different editions.

That’s a reasonable division of labour. We would then probably have lots of situations where one “Work” in MusicBrainz corresponds to multiple “Music Score Editions” in BookBrainz. There’s still the problem of tracking the _musical_ essence of relationships between different scores. I suspect BookBrainz won’t want to be in the business, and will push that back to MusicBrainz. That in turn will lead to MusicBrainz needing to have Work distinctions that aren’t audible. Difficult.

We should remember that a lot more goes into the audible differences between recordings, than the details of which scores they used. The modifications each musician makes to the score for performance, their musical skill, their artistic interpretation, their instruments, their performance practice: all of these are differences that will never be captured by tracking music score editions. I think this is an area that MusicBrainz doesn’t yet attempt to record.

> [@ListMyCDs.com](#):
>
> …It would be nice to be able to record every tiny detail related to music but we need to be practical….

I recall making that same point in [another thread](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/classical-release-artist-style-and-lo-o-o-ng-release-artist-strings/127381) :-), but getting strong resistance. I do agree with being practical, however.

Thank you, everyone, for the good ideas. Please keep them coming.

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