Standard Instrumentation
Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:11 pm
Taking Davydov's suggestion, I've decided to make a new thread aimed to solve the controversial issue of instrumentation in the work info/general information field. What are your thoughts? Mine are the following:
Davydov's general ideas: The tagging system assumes that the singular form of the instrument means 1 by default (e.g. "violin" is just 1 violin, "clarinet" is 1 clarinet, "piano" is solo piano, etc). It's usual practice for songs to be listed as 'Voice, Piano', rather than the slightly ridiculous '1 voice, 1 piano'. We need to try to find something that's standard for both vocal and instrumental music.
The ideas of having "1 flute" "1 piano": Music written in the baroque period have to specify exact numbers, even if there's only one instrument. This is because many works were published as 'Sonata for Flute'), mean for flute and continuo. To make an unambiguous distinction from the cases where there really is a work for solo unaccompanied flute, I prefer to number it. Of course, this could also be fixed by always giving 'Flute, Continuo' where applicable, but there still may be room for ambiguity when the listing reads merely 'Flute'.
My thought is that the number should always be listed, except where it's complete clutter (e.g. 1 flute, 1 trumpet, 1 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 bass, 1 timpani).
Basically we need to establish something concrete so the long discussions and debates can be over, and something can be applied.
Ideas?
Davydov's general ideas: The tagging system assumes that the singular form of the instrument means 1 by default (e.g. "violin" is just 1 violin, "clarinet" is 1 clarinet, "piano" is solo piano, etc). It's usual practice for songs to be listed as 'Voice, Piano', rather than the slightly ridiculous '1 voice, 1 piano'. We need to try to find something that's standard for both vocal and instrumental music.
The ideas of having "1 flute" "1 piano": Music written in the baroque period have to specify exact numbers, even if there's only one instrument. This is because many works were published as 'Sonata for Flute'), mean for flute and continuo. To make an unambiguous distinction from the cases where there really is a work for solo unaccompanied flute, I prefer to number it. Of course, this could also be fixed by always giving 'Flute, Continuo' where applicable, but there still may be room for ambiguity when the listing reads merely 'Flute'.
My thought is that the number should always be listed, except where it's complete clutter (e.g. 1 flute, 1 trumpet, 1 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 bass, 1 timpani).
Basically we need to establish something concrete so the long discussions and debates can be over, and something can be applied.
Ideas?