Dordán's Irish Traditional and Baroque: classical or not?

MusicBrainz Classical
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I’ve got a release that I think shouldn’t follow the CSG, but just want to double check my thinking.

The title is “Ceol Traidisiúnta Agus Baróc” and “Irish Traditional and Baroque”. Normally I’d use CSG for anything baroque, but the cover art looks much more like folk/traditional to me and the relative prominence of the band+members vs composers seems more like folk than classical to me.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1284655-Dordán-Irish-Traditional-And-Baroque has images. Release group “Irish Traditional & Baroque” by Dordán - MusicBrainz exists but doesn’t have cover art. It doesn’t look at all classical in MB now.

What do others think, classical or not?

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I have some thoughts about this notion of “classical” as we use it at MusicBrainz.

First, “classical” is really about the metadata, not the music. If the metadata follows the tradition of “classical” or “Western European art music” metadata, then the classical style guide applies, regardless of how the music sounds or what words the artists use about it.

Second, the tradition of “classical” metadata is a combination of factors:

  • The works being performed are given prominence, separate from the performance of the works.
  • The works are covers, rather than original compositions for the release. The works may predate the recording by decades if not centuries.
  • The metadata gives composer of the works higher status than the performers, or at least equal. In non-classical metadata, the composer may be invisible.
  • Many performers are given prominent billing, not just a single “Release Artist”.
  • Music in the “Western European art music” tradition is often described with “classical” metadata
  • The work names (except for theatrical works like opera) are frequently descriptive rather than expressive, so “Symphony number 9 in D-minor” rather than “By the River”.

Not all the factors appear in every case, but the more you have, the more “classical” the metadata.

There is more, but now is not a good time for me to gather my thoughts well.

Does that help?

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I would argue on the side of folk music being by the band performing it. This should be credited to Dordán as they are clearly not a classical orchestra. The works can be linked and credited as works, like with all other folk music.

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I agree, this is folk music. a few of the tunes appear to be arrangements of tunes written by composers more associated with classical music, but that happens all the time in folk music.

And it’s kinda nice. You can listen on Youtube:

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