User talk:Reosarevok/Work Types

I have some difficulties with this categorisation, and sometimes don't bother to use it (I don't like genres either, and often despair of the instrument list).

The addition of Symphonic Poem is a help - I suppose it can be used synonymously with "Tone Poem"? But sometimes these do have individual movements, for example some of the Sibelius ones. Or would you categorise these as Suites?

The biggest problem I have with this list for categorising WCM is how to handle chamber music. The list has "Sonata" and "Quartet", but it does not have "Trio", "Quintet" or other groups of 6, 7, 8, 9 .. 13 players. And anway, to my mind it is less significant precisely how many people are playing than what the nature of the grouping is: standard string quartet (not SATB!), strings plus piano, strings plus one wind, standard wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn, bassoon), other wind groupings, ...

Outside of WCM the list is useless anyway. Almost everything in popular music is, as you say, a Song. In folk music it may be a Song or, equally likely, it may be a Tune. In English/Scottish/Irish/etc. folk music, there are standard categorisations of Tunes (Jig, Reel, Slow Air, Hornpipe, Mazurka, Polka, Slide, Slip Jig, Strathspey ...). Often the type is stated in the track title or the liner notes, and MBz editors add it to the MBz recording title or the disambiguation comment. More often than not, a track will be a series of more than one Tune, possibly including a Song, and is known as a "Set Of Tunes", or just a Set.

Is it useful to record this stuff in a structured way? I'm not sure. Monxton 19:04, 2 January 2012 (UTC)