User:RobertKaye/Works Definition

Defintion of a Work

My current attempt at defining a work:

A Work is a new musical creation or a creative combination of existing musical creations. Works can be performed and recorded to create recordings or recordings can be creatively combined to create new recordings.

By allowing a wider definition of a Work we can capture more information about the Work. For instance, if a compilation of music is considered a Work, then the release level information/ARs can capture the information about the recordings contained in the compilation and the Work level information/ARs can capture the information about the compilation itself.

Artist Credits for Works

A work artist_credit is used to indicate the artist(s) commonly associated with a work. The actual composer of the work is defined via an artist-work AR.

ISWCs for Works

In most cases, ISWCs should be attached to only one Work. Rare cases may require an ISWC to be attached to multiple works.

Alternative 1

A work represents an abstract musical creation/concept which can be performed and recorded to create a recording. Alternatively, a work can be creatively manipulated (i.e. arranged, remixed, sampled, mashed-up, etc.) into a new work, which can then have its own performances and recordings.

I took a stab at a definition, hopefully it's not too wordy. --navap 20:37, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Alternative 2

Here's what we ended with when ruoak and I talked about the above 'more liberal' definition in IRC:

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What is a Work?

A Work is a intentional musical creation, a creative combination of existing Works, or some combination of both.

'Works' vs. 'Recordings':

• Works can be performed, combined, and/or recorded to create recordings.
• Recordings can be creatively combined to create new Recordings or Works, depending on the situation. (See Mix Terminology for more details).

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It addresses what I saw as the three weaknesses in the original suggested definition (copied from IRC):

1. Is a lost composition still a Work? (It can't be recorded)
2. Is a jam or improv "song" a Work? (It is a new musical "creation"... perhaps 'composition' would be better wording?)
3. This is prob a style Q, outside the definition, but just where does a medley become a Work, not a Recording?

ruoak suggested the answers were yes, yes, and yes. I suggested yes, no, and yes/no depending on the situation, though after discussion with ruoak, I could see my answer to #2 being also yes, depending on the situation, though not yes universally. The above definition was thus where we got to in trying to separate performance/recording from the core definition of a Work, rather than simply something potentially done with a Work (re #1), permitting 'Works' from improvs/jams, but only when it actually seems intended to be a real "jam song" (#2), and trying to find some additional guidance on Work vs Recording for mixes/medleys/comps/etc (#3). BrianFreud 23:21, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Tricky things to consider

• http://chatlogs.musicbrainz.org/musicbrainz-devel/2010/2010-09/2010-09-13.html#T19-31-11-56868
• http://lists.musicbrainz.org/pipermail/musicbrainz-style/2010-April/009355.html