Should a large LP track be split up into individual variations?

MusicBrainz
,
1

This release has a 9-minute track at the end. It consists of a bunch of variations on a theme.

If you look at the back cover, “Variationen” (but not the individual variations) appears in bold, like all the other tracks on the album. This would suggest that the artist intent is for “Variationen” to be a single track.

On the other hand, the back cover lists lengths for the individual variations, so maybe the tracklist should list them individually:

  1. Variationen: Extrabreit
  2. Variationen: Falco
  3. Variationen: Spliff
  4. …

I haven’t checked the LP surface to see whether there are gaps between the variations. It looks as though the current tracklist came from a CD via FreeDB, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in it.

I didn’t see anything definitive in the style guide. Nor did I find any discussions here that address this, though I might have missed them.

2 Likes
2

I think “Variationen: Hänsel und Gretel (Extrabreit)” etc. would be better. Extrabeit is not a subtitle, more like an ETI, though not printed as such.

1 Like
3

Just to give some more context, just in case it affects your opinion: what the artist is doing here is rendering a folk song in the style of various pop artists: Extrabreit, Falco, Nena, and so on. It’s similar to Tom Lehrer’s “Clementine”, if you’re familiar with that.
The melody and lyrics are different in each variation, and the entire series comprises a comedy bit.