Richard Strauss: status of works in MB

MusicBrainz Classical
#1

Dear MB “classical style” community,

I’ve been working on Richard Strauss recently and am cleaning up the recordings in the moment.

How about >MB works< for >Richard Strauss<?
Is there an common interest in cleaning up the works of Richard Strauss?

  1. how about the operas?
    “Der Rosenkavalier” is an example.
    https://musicbrainz.org/work/18e6d250-1e75-499c-804b-865da45f8ddb

I find:

  • parts directly linked to the main opera
  • parts probably added later to the “Akt” level
  • “These relationships have a specific ordering” not activated etc
    should that be corrected?

In the libretto for Rosenkavalier there are no scences.


Every part in MB is based on (good) common sense and
(arbitrary recording companies made) tracks/recordings.
This conglomerat of (possibly) still growing parts makes for instance roles attached to parts useless.

MB style/classical/works states different rules/guide lines.

  1. how about orchestral works with titles in English?
    Work titles should be in German (if applicable) and foreign language titles move to aliases?

  2. how about links to the catalogues
    “Works of Richard Strauss by opus number” and “Werkverzeichnis (Richard Strauss TrV)”
    https://musicbrainz.org/series/3e7dca7a-fa41-4d66-9aa2-d6529c9b8a9a
    https://musicbrainz.org/series/13d9e7a0-2acb-487d-9828-11b8e95e3d2c
    directly linked on recordings?
    Don’t recall examples right now…

Should some time be invested in works by Richard Strauss?
Would there be priorities?
Are there helpful scripts for works?
Should there be a discussion first or a step by step voting by going along?
What do you think?

Have a nice day!

2 Likes
#2

I’m going thru my J.S. Bach collection and the catalogues series are essential. Most of the works I have encountered are linked to the catalogue works, there is a very helpful user script to link based on top work.

I’m not very knowledgeable about Richard Strauss, surely my loss, are the catalogues complete ? I would imagine this is the place to start, and then link the works to recordings in relationships.

I would be interested, as sooner or later, I will arrive at Strauss tagging.

BTW, which of the catalogues is more comprehensive ?

1 Like
#3

Thanks for your question!
I was wrong with 3.: you probably can not link directly recordings to the catalogues - good news!
And to answer your question: both are complete.

#4

I was wrong with 3.: you probably can not link directly recordings to the catalogues - good news!

Unless we are talking about different things, yes, one can link work from the catalogue to individual recordings.

You can go to the Relationship tab and add a work relationship to the recording. There is also a user script, fantastic script, that will try to add a “Top” work and its parts (movements or acts) to checked recordings, you need to provide a main work id. That’s where the catalogues are indispensable.

#5

Yes. The official guidelines say “In unnumbered operas (Wagner, for instance), sometimes an act is the smallest entity you can enter”.
So feel free to merge all parts of an act in the main act work.

Note that operas are tricky since there’s no perfect solution, so the topic comes frequently on the forum, e.g. Once more about Wagner's operas

I think the same discussion occurred about Bach’s works. IMO titles should be in German with aliases in other languages.
Personnally I never attempt to fix globally this kind of things because I always think there might be a semi-automatized way to do it (fetch titles and aliases from wikidata?) But if you feel motivated please do it :slight_smile:

Indeed links to recordings are done through the works, so filling as many recording-work relations as possible is the most valuable

Have you looked at The Classical Editor Toolbox and past https://community.metabrainz.org/tag/community-cleanup ?

#6

thanks a lot for your helpful comments!

I was aware of the Wagner discussion and the toolbox link, but not of the detailed discussion on cleanups and hints compiled there.
Time for reading…