Some wiki page relating to Classical Music
This is kind of stream of consiousness description of the problem with uniquely identifying classical tracks, please feel free to refactor or reformat as appropriate.
Tracks of classical music are more difficult to uniquely identify because:
Track titles are rarely sufficiently unique: "Symphony N. 1", "Fugue in C Minor", are meaningless without further information
Composer is more significant than the performer/orchestra (you generally find Bach works under Bach in the music store)
Tracks may be parts or subparts of a larger work
The following pieces of information (in various combinations) can be used to uniquely identify classical works (i.e. tracks):
Composer Name
Composer Birth-Death dates (further limits scope)
Opus Number (i.e. Beethoven)
Specialty catalog number (BWV for Bach works, RV for Vivaldi, etc)
Key signature (C Minor, A-Flat Major, etc)
Type of work (Sonata, Fugue, Symphony, Oratorio, etc)
Movement number (1st movement)
Tempo or performance indication (Allegro, Prestissimo, Alla Breve)
However, this information only identifies the song. The issue is similar to covers, but here there could be countless numbers of artists playing the same work, at different times, on different collections, and so on. For example, try to enumerate all performances of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 535, I think). I have about 20 instances of this song alone.
For solo works, you could list the instrument and performance. Here's an example:
Title: "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor"
Key: D Minor
Movement #: 1
Movement Title: Toccata
Artist Name: Biggs, D. Power (Organ)
But again, this guy could have countless recordings of the same work (I know for a fact D. Power Biggs plays this on several albums, and they are _not_ from the same recording session).
So it seems Classical works add another dimension to the problem of trackingtracks.
Worse, what do you name the files? Artist-Album-TrackNumber-TrackTitle cover your bases for most popular works, but do you really want a filename like this?
Bach, Johann Sebastian - Famous Organ Works - E. Power Biggs - 01 - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 535) - 1. Toccata.mp3
My solution has been to use:
Label
Label's Catalog #
Track Number
Unique catalog # if available.
The above filename reduces to (again, this is a made-up example)
SonyClassical-ABC1234-01-BWV0535.1.mp3
Or:
Label: Sony Classical
Album Catalog #: ABC1234
Track #: 1
Unique Catalog #: BWV 535
There's little doubt where this track came from when I look at the directory, but it gives no clue as to _what_ song this is without further reference.
So, how can we put classical tracks in MusicBrainz as it is (at least until the new schema) without messing up our collections?