UNIFORM TITLES FOR MUSIC CLA TECHNICAL SERVICES INTEREST GROUP & THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER, APRIL 13, 2012

John Redford, Biola University

Why have Uniform Titles for music? Consider the publishing history of Beethoven’s 5th

Symphony: Symphony no. 5  Symphony in C minor Funfte Symphonie 5e Symphonie 5th Symphony, op. 67 Symphonie en ut mineur Symphonie nr. 5, C moll, op. 67 Beethoven’s celebrated symphony no. 5

Uniform titles…

Collocate records for a work appearing under various titles (e.g. Beethoven’s 5th)

Collocate different manifestations of a work, e.g. scores (full score, study score etc.); sound recordings; video recordings

Distinguish different works with similar or the same title

Gather together items that contain similar types of works under a collective uniform title

And the U.T. is

Symphonies, ǂn no. 5, op. 67, ǂr C minor

Sample catalog record

See…

Weitz, Uniform Title Headings OCLC BFAS: 240 Uniform Title for definitions, MARC coding and

examples

AACR2 Ch. 25 (25.25 for music)

The good news!

Unlikely that you’ll have to formulate them

Even for original cataloging there’s a very good chance that the U.T. has already been created for another manifestation of the work

Let’s look in the Authority File… However…

You should be able to

Recognize U.T.s Understand U.T.s Search authority file

Consider the music reference role Stanford has over 6000 entries for

Mozart How to find Mozart’s Symphony no. 40 in

G minor, K. 550 Uniform title: Symphonies, ǂn K. 550,

ǂr G minor Search for Mozart and K. 550 to retrieve

all manifestations (well maybe not all; we’ll get to collective titles shortly)

Principles of Uniform Titles

A Brief Introduction by Matthew Wise http://library.music.indiana.edu/tech_s/m

la/ut.gui Or Google: music uniform titles

Three types

Generic e.g. concerto, sonata, intermezzo, string quartet

Distinctive e.g. Phantom of the opera, Stardust

Collective e.g. Piano music. Selections, Chamber music, Orchestral music

Generic

Uniform titles are usually required for all musical forms (concerto, symphony, trio sonatas, etc.), genres (capriccio, nocturne, intermezzo, etc.), and chamber music combinations (trio, quartet, quintet, etc.).

Examples

Rachmaninoff, Sergei, 1873-1943. Concertos, ǂm piano, orchestra, ǂn no. 2,

op. 18, ǂr C minor Piano concerto no. 2 in C minor, op. 18

Chopin, Frederic, 1810-1849. Waltzes, ǂm piano, ǂn op. 69. ǂn No. 2 Valse in B minor, op. 69, no. 2

Examples

Bartok Bela, 1881-1945. Quartets, ǂm strings, ǂn no. 4 Streichquartett IV (Initial title element isolated: see AACR2

25.28)

Respighi, Ottorino, 1879-1936. Quintets, ǂm piano, strings, ǂr F minor Quintetto in fa minore per pianoforte e

archi

Uniform titles…

may reflect single works or collections of consecutively numbered similar works. The titles are always given in the plural, unless the composer has written only one work of that type.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, 1809-1847.

Sonatas, ǂm clarinet, piano, ǂr E♭ major Sonate Es-dur fur Klarinette und Klavier

Examples

Reger, Max, 1873-1916. Sonatas, ǂm clarinet, piano, ǂn no. 1-3 Drei Sonaten fur Klarinette und Klavier

Bernstein, Leonard, 1918- Sonata, ǂm clarinet, piano Sonata for clarinet and piano

Instrumentation, serial numbers,… opus numbers, thematic index numbers,

quantitative numbers, keys, and composition dates are moved to subordinate positions in the uniform title, or are omitted. However, integral adjectives which were part of the composer's original title are retained at the beginning.

Schoenberg, Arnold, 1874-1951. Stucke, ǂm orchestra, ǂn op. 16 Funf Orchesterstucke, Opus 16

Example

Kabalevsky, Dmitry Borisovich, 1904- Legkie pʹesy, ǂn op. 39 24 little pieces, op. 39, for the piano

Thematic indexes

Also called Thematic Catalogs An index of a composer’s works usually

in either chronological or genre order with musical incipits

Opus numbers may be used e.g. Beethoven, or a system devised by the indexer e.g. Kochel/Mozart; Hoboken/Haydn; Deutsch/Schubert, or another numbering system e.g. BWV/Bach (Bach Werk Verzeichnis = catalog of Bach’s works)

Thematic indexes

Music catalogers authorized to create name headings and uniform titles need thematic catalogs and other reference tools such as New Grove to ascertain works and formulate unique uniform titles.

E.g. a publication merely stating Violin Concerto in G by Vivaldi does not state which of the 14 he wrote in that key!

Distinctive titles

For non-generic or "distinctive" titles, the title in the original language is preferred. These may be found in the composer's worklist in the New Grove Dictionary, the composer's thematic catalog, or other authoritative sources.

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Symphonie fantastique Fantastic symphony

Examples

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay, 1844-1908. Zolotoi petushok The golden cockerel

Puccini, Giacomo, 1858-1924. Fanciulla del West The girl of the golden West

For classical works with “popular” titles,

…the generic uniform title is preferred.

Schubert, Franz, 1797-1828. Quintets, ǂm piano, violin, viola, violoncello, double

bass, ǂn D. 667, ǂr A major Trout quintet for piano and strings, op. 114

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827. Sonatas, ǂm piano, ǂn no. 14, op. 27, no. 2, ǂr C♯

minor Moonlight sonata

Separate parts of larger works… are hierarchically identified through

uniform titles.

Handel, George Frideric, 1685-1759. Messiah. ǂp Hallelujah Hallelujah chorus, from The Messiah

examples

Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883. Meistersinger von Nurnberg. ǂp Vorspiel Prelude to the Mastersingers of

Nuremburg

Barber, Samuel, 1910-1981. Quartets, ǂm strings, ǂn no. 1, op. 11, ǂr

B minor. ǂp Adagio; ǂo arr. Adagio for strings

Arrangements for different instrumentations…

are related to their original formats through uniform titles.

Rossini, Gioacchino, 1792-1868. Guillaume Tell. ǂp Ouverture; ǂo arr. William Tell overture : transcribed for

military band

Example

Copland, Aaron, 1900- Sonatas, ǂm violin, piano; ǂo arr. Sonata for clarinet and piano

Full scores, vocal scores,…

librettos, and translations are hierarchically identified through uniform titles.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Zauberflote. ǂs Vocal score. ǂl Italian & German

Die Zauberflote...mit Ubersetzung ins Italienische

Collective titles

Complete works, miscellaneous collections, complete collections of a specific type, and selective collections of a specific type are uniquely identified through uniform titles.

Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897. Works Samtliche Werke

Examples

Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897. Selections Opus 23, opus 24, opus 18, opus 90

Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897. Piano music. ǂk Selections Complete sonatas and variations for solo

piano

Music catalogers go beyond the call of duty…

Searching the authority file

Find the correct uniform title for: Adagio from "Moonlight sonata" for violin

& piano / Beethoven Rite of spring / Stravinsky Selections from Songs without words /

Mendelssohn

And a bit of fun…

Find the uniform title for John Redford’s (d. 1547) contribution to the Mulliner book

What are the correct uniform titles for these arrangements (unpublished) by John Redford (fl. 2012):

Memory from Cats arranged for piano / Andrew Lloyd Webber

18th variation from Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini arranged for solo piano / Sergei Rachmaninoff

Prelude from Ben-Hur arranged for brass quintet and organ / Miklos Rozsa