The Da Capo Catalog of Classical Music Compositions, by Jerzy Chwialkowski
Digital Rights to the Catalog are for Sale
In popular music or jazz, listeners look for an artist (or band) and his/her recordings; in classical music, for a composer and his/her compositions. On-demand music providers ignore the difference and offer classical music in the same way as they do popular music or jazz, with a focus on the recordings and not on compositions.
The classical music selection process
Classical music needs to be offered through its own catalog, so that classical music lovers are able to browse and see where a particular composition fits into the oeuvre of the composer, and to explore whether or not are there any other compositions in the same genre by this composer, or whether were they composed before or after this one, etc. Instead, classical music lovers are offered lists of recordings organized by particular recording labels. These do not offer the browsing experience suitable for choosing classical music to listen to.
The browsing experience
“I am browsing through the catalog of classical music displayed on my computer while listening to compositions. I can see all the works, genre by genre, ever composed by the composer I am interested in. I compare dates of different compositions. I calculate the age of composers at the time of composing. I see what they composed before and after. I see more complex works broken down into their component parts. I see literary sources of vocal works. I see who else set to music a particular piece of poetry besides, say, Schubert . . I feel I am enriching myself each time I browse through the Catalog. And when one composition ends, I am ready with my next selection.
Now, I would like to select a particular composition displayed in the Catalog and, in the next window, see what recordings of it are available. Then I choose one to listen to.”
Does a “philatelic catalog” for classical music lovers exist at all?
As a matter of fact, it does. I am the author of it.
The Da Capo Catalog of Classical Music Compositions
ISBN 0-306-80701-7 (paperback)
ISBN 0-306-79666-X (hardcover)
Copyright © 1996 by Jerzy Chwialkowski
Published by Da Capo Press, Inc.
The Catalog is the first in the history of classical music and the only one. It took a life time to put it together. On its 1,400 pages, the Catalog lists all compositions of 132 major composers. It includes all pertinent information about each composition, i.e. its full title, key, date, literary source, instruments, nickname, opus number, and catalog number if any. Larger compositions are broken down into their component parts. Literary sources are cross-referenced when used by more than one composer.
The way that classical music is offered by various music-on-demand services needs to be corrected. So currently, I am offering the digital rights to the Catalog for sale to the interested providers of the classical music-on-demand service.
The Catalog is available in form of 132 Microsoft Word files, one per composer.
Please email your inquiry to Jerzy Chwialkowski at uchwialkowski@rogers.com
Composers
Albéniz, Isaac (Manuel Francisco) (1860–1909, Spanish)
Albinoni, Tommaso Giovanni (1671–1750, Italian)
Bacewicz, Grażyna (1909–1969, Polish)
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788, German)
Bach, Johann (John) Christian (1735–1782, German)
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685–1750, German)
Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–1784, German)
Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich (1837–1910, Russian)
Barber, Samuel (1910–1981, American)
Bartók, Béla (1881–1945, Hungarian)
Beach (née Cheney), Amy Marcy (Mrs. H.H.A. / Mrs. Henry Harris Aubrey) (1867–1944, American)
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770–1827, German)
Bellini, Vincenzo (1801–1835, Italian)
Berg, Alban (Maria Johannes) (1885–1935, Austrian)
Berlioz, (Louis-)Hector (1803–1869, French)
Bernstein, Leonard (1918–1990, American)
Bizet, Georges (Alexandre-César-Léopold) (1838–1875, French)
Bloch, Ernest (1880–1959, Swiss-American)
Boccherini, (Ridolfo) Luigi (1743–1805, Italian)
Borodin, Alexander Porfiryevich (1833–1887, Russian)
Boulez, Pierre (born 1925, French)
Brahms, Johannes (1833–1897, German)
Britten, (Edward) Benjamin (1913–1976, English)
Bruch, Max (Karl August) (1838–1920, German)
Bruckner, (Josef) Anton (1824–1896, Austrian)
Busoni, Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) (1866–1924, Italian)
Buxtehude, Dietrich (Boxdehude / Buchstehude, Diderich) (ca1637–1707, German / Danish)
Cage, John (Milton) (1912–1992, American)
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario (1895–1968, Italian)
Cavalli, Francesco (Caletti-Bruni, Pier Francesco) (1602–1676, Italian)
Chabrier, (Alexis-)Emmanuel (1841–1894, French)
Charpentier, Marc-Antoine (1634–1704, French)
Cherubini, Luigi (Carlo Zanobi Salvatore Maria) (1760–1842, Italian)
Chopin, Fryderyk (Franciszek) (1810–1849, Polish)
Copland, Aaron (1900–1990, American)
Corelli, Arcangelo (1653–1713, Italian)
Couperin, François "Le Grand" (1668–1733, French)
Debussy, (Achille-)Claude (1862–1918, French)
Delius, Frederick (Fritz) (Theodore Albert) (1862–1934, English)
Dohnányi, Ernő (Ernst von) (1877–1960, Hungarian)
Donizetti, (Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) (1797–1848, Italian)
Dupré, Marcel (1886–1971, French)
Dvořák, Antonín (Leopold) (1841–1904, Czech)
Elgar, Sir Edward (William) (1857–1934, English)
Falla (y Matheu), Manuel de (1876–1946, Spanish)
Fauré, Gabriel(-Urbain) (1845–1924, French)
Franck, César(-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert) (1822–1890, French)
Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583–1643, Italian)
Gershwin, George (Jacob) (1898–1937, American)
Glazunov, Alexander Konstantinovich (1865–1936, Russian)
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich (1804–1857, Russian)
Gluck, Christoph Willibald (1714–1787, German)
Gounod, Charles(-François) (1818–1893, French)
Granados (y Campiña), Enrique (1867–1916, Spanish)
Grieg, Edvard (Hagerup) (1843–1907, Norwegian)
Handel, George Frideric (Händel, Georg Friedrich) (1685–1759, German)
Haydn, (Franz) Joseph (1732–1809, Austrian)
Hindemith, Paul (1895–1963, German)
Holst, Gustav(us Theodore von) (1874–1934, English)
Honegger, Arthur (1892–1955, Swiss)
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk (1778–1837, German / Bohemian)
Ives, Charles Edward (1874–1954, American)
Janáček, Leoš (Leo Eugen) (1854–1928, Czech)
Kabalevsky, Dmitri Borisovich (1904–1987, Soviet)
Kalinnikov, Vasily Sergeyevich (1866–1901, Russian)
Khachaturian, Aram Ilyich (1903–1978, Soviet / Armenian)
Kodály, Zoltán (1882–1967, Hungarian)
Lalo, Édouard(-Victoire-Antoine) (1823–1892, French)
Lehár, Franz (Ferenc) (1870–1948, Austrian)
Leoncavallo, Ruggiero (1858–1919, Italian)
Liszt, Franz (Ferenc) (1811–1886, Hungarian)
Lully, Jean-Baptiste (Lulli, Giovanni Battista) (1632–1687, French)
Lutosławski, Witold (1913–1994, Polish)
Mahler, Gustav (1860–1911, Austrian)
Martinů, Bohuslav (Jan) (1890–1959, Czech)
Massenet, Jules(-Émile-Frédéric) (1842–1912, French)
Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix (1809–1847, German)
Messiaen, Olivier(-Eugène-Prosper-Charles) (1908–1992, French)
Meyerbeer, Giacomo (Meyer Beer, Jakob Liebmann) (1791–1864, German)
Milhaud, Darius (1892–1974, French)
Moniuszko, Stanisław (1819–1872, Polish)
Monteverdi, Claudio (Giovanni Antonio) (1567–1643, Italian)
Mozart, (Johannes Chrisostomus) Wolfgang(us) Amadeus (Theophilus Sigismundus)
(1756–1791, Austrian)
Musorgsky, Modest Petrovich (1839–1881, Russian)
Nielsen, Carl (August) (1865–1931, Danish)
Offenbach, Jacques (Jacob) (1819–1880, French)
Orff, Carl (1895–1982, German)
Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (1860–1941, Polish)
Paganini, Niccolò (1782–1840, Italian)
Penderecki, Krzysztof (born 1933, Polish)
Poulenc, Francis (Jean Marcel) (1899–1963, French)
Prokofiev, Sergey Sergeyevich (1891–1953, Soviet)
Puccini, Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) (1858–1924, Italian)
Purcell, Henry (1659–1695, English)
Rachmaninov, Sergey Vasilyevich (1873–1943, Russian)
Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683–1764, French)
Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice (1875–1937, French)
Respighi, Ottorino (1879–1936, Italian)
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolay Andreyevich (1844–1908, Russian)
Rodrigo, Joaquín (born 1901, Spanish)
Rossini, Gioachino (Antonio) (1792–1868, Italian)
Roussel, Albert (Charles Paul Marie) (1869–1937, French)
Saint-Saëns, (Charles-)Camille (1835–1921, French)
Sarasate (y Navascuéz), Pablo (Martín Melitón) de (1844–1908, Spanish)
Satie, Érik(-Alfred-Leslie) (1866–1925, French)
Scarlatti, (Pietro) Alessandro (Gaspare) (1660–1725, Italian)
Scarlatti, (Giuseppe) Domenico (1685–1757, Italian)
Schoenberg (Schönberg), Arnold (Franz Walter) (1874–1951, Austrian)
Schubert, Franz (Peter) (1797–1828, Austrian)
Schumann, Robert (Alexander) (1810–1856, German)
Shostakovich, Dmitry Dmitryevich (1906–1975, Soviet)
Sibelius, Jean (Jan) (Julius Christian) (1865–1957, Finnish)
Skryabin, Alexander Nicolayevich (1872–1915, Russian)
Smetana, Bedřich (1824–1884, Czech)
Spohr, Louis (Ludwig) (1784–1859, German)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz (born 1928, German)
Strauss (I), Johann (Baptist) Sr. (1804–1849, Austrian)
Strauss (II), Johann (Baptist) Jr. (1825–1899, Austrian)
Strauss, Richard (Georg) (1864–1949, German)
Stravinsky, Igor Fyodorovich (1882–1971, Russian)
Sullivan, Sir Arthur (Seymour) (1842–1900, English)
Szymanowski, Karol (Maciej) (1882–1937, Polish)
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840–1893, Russian)
Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872–1958, English)
Verdi, Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) (1813–1901, Italian)
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887–1959, Brasilian)
Vivaldi, Antonio (Lucio) (1678–1741, Italian)
Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard (1813–1883, German)
Weber, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von (1786–1826, German)
Webern, Anton (Friedrich Wilhelm von) (1883–1945, Austrian)
Wieniawski, Henryk (1835–1880, Polish)
Wolf, Hugo (Filipp Jakob) (1860–1903, Austrian)
Introduction
This catalog is the only source available to classical music lovers that exhaustively lists the works of 132 major composers, from Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Bach to Webern, Cage, and Stockhausen. Whether you simply collect favorite recordings and enjoy books about composers and their music, or whether you are a true connoisseur, this catalog will be as indispensable an investment as a philatelic catalog is to the postage stamp collector.
While individual composers and their work have been thoroughly treated in other books, there has never been a volume that collects and organizes all essential information about classical compositions. Similarly, while other books provide plots and lists of characters of operas—useful for operagoers but not quite sufficient for those who listen at home—only this volume dissects numerous stage works into building blocks so that the reader can easily place a particular aria in the context of the whole opera, or quickly grasp the structure of an oratorio. And The Da Capo Catalog also includes lost works, fragments, projects, doubtful and spurious compositions, and arrangements of other composer’s works.
For the novice, the catalog will serve as a notebook and guide:
—You can highlight in it all the compositions you already own to see which works would complete your collection of, say, Mozart's serenades or Dvořák's string quartets.
—You can label your collection using the numbering system on the left of each entry.
—When you hear a radio announcer speak of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.14, you can instantly check whether it is the "Moonlight" or the "Waldstein" sonata.
—When you can find in your record store Perahia's recordings of all of Mozart's piano concertos from No.1 through No.9 and No.11 through No.27, you can instantly discover herein why he did not record Mozart's Piano Concerto No.10.
—If you collect symphonies or string quartets only, you can trace lesser-known ones. You will discover, for example, three symphonies by Borodin and twenty string quartets by the operatic composer Donizetti.
As your expertise grows, so will the power of this book. The connoisseur will appreciate having at his or her fingertips quick answers to questions such as these:
—How many years after Beethoven's "Eroica" did Tchaikovsky compose his "Pathétique"?
—At what age did Brahms compose his first symphony?
—What was Schumann working on when Berlioz published his "Symphonie fantastique"?
—What other works by Beethoven share the musical themes of "Eroica"?
—What American folk tunes, popular melodies, and fragments of other composers' works did Ives build into his compositions?
—What other composers besides Schubert set to music Goethe’s "Gretchen am Spinnrade", and who besides Mendelssohn wrote music to Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?
Each catalog entry consists of the title of the work of the composer, along with the date of composition (or first performance/publication), the source of the lyrics to vocal works, the instruments for which the piece was composed, additional information regarding the provenance of the work, arrangements, orchestration, etc., and its opus and/or catalog numbers. Instrumental compositions which can be considered as collections of individual pieces (e.g. instrumental suites) have been broken down into their constituent sections, and other compositions, like symphonies or string quartets, list the titles of the movements if they contain programmatic information. When the text of a vocal or stage compositions was also used by other composers listed in the catalog, this has also been noted.
The compositions have been grouped first by composer (arranged alphabetically), then in genres: stage music, symphonies, other orchestral, concertos, string quartets, other chamber music, piano, organ, church music, choral, other vocal, songs, arrangements of works of other composers. Within each genre, the compositions are arranged either chronologically or according to the numbering system of the most definitive catalog of the composer's works (e.g. BWV numbers for J.S. Bach). Additional headings and subheadings are introduced when necessary: for example, stage works are subdivided into operas, ballets, incidental music, radio, and film; chamber music is subdivided according to the number of instruments, with separate subheadings for more popular ensembles. And each composition is given its full description, so that regardless of how others may abbreviate the tittle, you will be able to identify it quickly in the catalog.
While using this catalog, please keep in mind that you are travelling through several centuries of classical music history, through generations of musicians and composers, through many countries and languages. In time, the meanings of words used to describe compositions changed (compare Vivaldi's cantatas for one voice and continuo with the elaborate cantatas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and often organ), new genres of music were created (the symphony, the string quartet), new instruments were invented (piano) and old ones improved (valves were added to the horn).
Titles of compositions were evolving as well. Originally a composition may have had a short title and perhaps a long descriptive subtitle, but a substitute title may then have been added. In time a substitute title may have become the main title. A composition may have been given a nickname, which in time may have pushed the original name aside (as is the case with the "Eroica Variations"). Some compositions were composed in one country and published elsewhere with titles in another language (some Russian composers were first published in France). Later, they might have been translated from the original into a third language.
This evolution—reflected in spelling, capitalization, numbering, and use of foreign words (e.g. praeludium, präludium, prélude, prelude; symphony, simphonie, sinfonia)—is part of our cultural heritage, and the catalog tries to preserve it, occasionally at the expense of uniformity or consistency. For the knowledgeable reader, these variations carry valuable information regarding the place and time of composition, the character of the piece, its structure, and more. Therefore only for works well established under their English names has preference been given to the English language. In many cases the work's title in the original language is followed in brackets by its English title (given to the work at the time it entered the repertoire of the English-speaking world, and not necessarily a straight translation).
This catalog was prepared with the classical music lover in mind: the listener, the reader, the collector of recordings. It omits information important mainly to scholars, such as the location of manuscripts or their state of preservation. The bibliography lists catalogs of individual composers should you require more information. The catalog does not address the numerous scholarly controversies surrounding titles of compositions, dating, instruments, authorship of arrangements, etc.—it follows the most authoritative sources, all listed in the bibliography.
The format is as user-friendly as I could make it. (For example, the catalog lists all the BWV numbers of J.S. Bach compositions—even the unused ones—so that the user does not have to wonder what composition a missing number denotes.) The abbreviations listed at the front of the volume are commonly used in books about classical music and are probably already familiar to the reader.
The main focus of the catalog is the well-defined period in music history from Bach and Handel to Schoenberg and Webern. However, the Baroque is also quite well represented, especially with composers who have strong "connections" with the Classic and Romantic eras. There are a few forays into contemporary music, which deserves a separate volume, updated every few years. Some composers were omitted because research into their work is not yet at the stage where each composition could be individually identified, which is the aim of this catalog. Others clearly fell beyond its scope. I regret that for lack of space I could not include such important and prolific composers as Telemann and Palestrina from the Baroque era; Cui, one of "The Mighty Five" of nineteeth-century Russia (the other four are included); Humperdinck, who wrote the ever-popular opera "Hänsel und Gretel"; or Schaeffer, who brought us musique concrète. I am solely responsible for the choice of composers; this choice was, inevitably, personal, and I hope that exclusions will be forgiven.
When I started this catalog many years ago for my own private use, I was astonished and disappointed by the inadequacy and inconsistency of the existing reference sources. They span many decades, originated in different countries, represent different standards, and—or so it seems—were often not subjected to the sharp eye of an editor. Even in the multi-volume New Grove Encyclopedia the lists are remarkably incomplete, the format changes from composer to composer, and the text is cluttered with information important primarily to archivists, making it difficult to use by ordinary classical music lovers such as myself.
I began to write complete lists of compositions based on available scholarly work and to come up with a format that would make using the catalog as easy as changing CDs in a CD player. After researching all the available books about each composer, I would base my list on the most authoritative one, and then check each composition with the other sources. For many composers I had to tap contacts in other countries and often use information available only in the language of the composer. As the work grew, I changed and improved the format of the catalog continuously until I was satisfied that it had become flexible yet coherent enough to accomodate bodies of work as different as those of Chopin and Stockhausen, transparent enough for the average reader yet with sufficient depth for experts, and informative enough to relay the character and significance of each composition. I then tried to reconcile my catalog with catalogs of available recordings such as The Schwann Catalogue, The Gramophone Classical Catalogue, and The New Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes, which involved cross-listing entries by every conceivable numbering and labelling system used there, so that Mozart symphonies do not end at No.41 "Jupiter"—chronologically his last—but at No.55; and one Beethoven sonata can be found listed as Op.27 No.2, Piano Sonata No.14, Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, and simply "Moonlight" Sonata.
So here it is, the first of its kind, a catalog for classical music lovers. In its various stages of completion, it has served me and continues to serve me well. Now I share it with you in the hope that it will become a well-appreciated companion in your journeys through musical history, and that it will enrich your experience of the highest achievements of human talent and spirit.
Explanatory Notes
The typical entry in the catalog contains three parts and is explained here on the basis of examples from Mendelssohn.
1.7 "Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde" (Son and Stranger), 1 act operetta (c1829, Klingemann)... Op.89
The first part of the entry pertains to the title of the composition. After The Da Capo Catalog number—1.7—is the proper title of the work—“Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde.” It is followed in parentheses by the English title—“Son and Stranger.” If the text in brackets is in the same language as the proper title of the composition, it indicates another name under which the composition is known. For example:
8.13 "Recitativo" (Largo) in D minor (c1820)...
"Recitativo" in D minor is also known as "Largo" in D minor; in various sources you may find it listed either way, but it is the same work composed in 1820.
Some instrumental compositions were given nicknames: these are placed in double quotation marks after the key of the composition. For example:
8.43 No.2 "Andante espressivo," in A minor, “Regrets”....
The nickname is "Regrets."
Many of the entries for songs and other vocal works list the first words of the composition. Those are shown in double quotation marks following the title (or titles) of the composition, and are preceded by a colon. For example:
17.3 "Die Nachtigall": “Da ging ich hin” (c ?1821-2)...
The name of the song is "Die Nachtigall". The first words are "Da ging ich hin."
To go back to our main example, Mendelssohn 1.7, the next words—1 act operetta—describe the genre of the composition in greater detail. This first part of the entry always ends at the parenthesis before the date of composition.
If a title is generic (Symphony, String Quartet, Piano Sonata) it is not listed in quotation marks, and is often followed by a number. In many instances this number has been assigned by the recording industry, often based on numbers in published collections. For example, Chopin’s mazurkas received numbers from 1 to 62. The first numbers, 1 to 49, follow a more or less chronological order, while numbers 50 to 62 represent mazurkas previously unknown or unnoticed (generally earlier versions of those previously known), in no particular order except that of their inclusion in the body of performed works. Another instance is Mozart’s violin sonatas, numbered from 1 to 36, where a group of six so-called “Aurnhammer-Sonaten” (Nos. 17 and 24–28) were not given consecutive numbers. Scholars usually spurn these numbers as “not valid” because obviously they were never sanctioned by the composer, but the listener is constantly confronted with them on recordings and in the catalogs of recordings. Since the industry quite notoriously shortens composition titles (for lack of space), often omitting catalog numbers, and since books by scholars omit numbering systems of the recording industry, the classical music lover trying to correlate both worlds is left in a vacuum. The Da Capo Catalog fills this void by including all applicable numbers.
The second part of the entry gives the basic information about the composition. In our main example, this consists of its date of composition—1829—and the name of the librettist—Klingeman. Sometimes after the date of composition is the date of revision. For example:
13.4 "Die erste Walpurgisnacht," cantata (c1832, r1843, Goethe; ch & orch)..Op.60
For ballets and incidental music, instead of the name of the librettist that of the playwright is given; for songs, that of the poet; for film scores, that of the principal screenwriter or director. Following this source information is often detail about the instrumental or vocal ensemble (always preceded by a semi-colon). The above cantata, Mendelssohn 13.4, was composed for chorus and orchestra. This information may in turn be followed by additional information about the work. For example:
3.8 "Trauermarsch," in A minor (c1836, milit band, in memory of N. Burgmüller)..Op.13
And this information may, after a semi-colon, be followed by information regarding other compositions or arrangements the composition influenced or in which its material was used.
Please keep in mind that double quotation marks (“) indicate titles of works or the first words of a vocal composition; single quotation marks (‘) indicate a quotation related to a work which is not its title.
The third part of the entry consists of the opus number and (if there is one) the catalog number of the work. In the case of our main example, Mendelssohn 1.7, this is simply the opus number: Op. 89. Some opus numbers are shown in parenthesis, which signifies that the number is used by association with another form of the same work and that the other form was originally published with that opus number. Other opus numbers are shown as “op.” rather than “Op.”; this usually indicates an abandoned numbering of a composer’s juvenile works.
Opus numbers were asigned by composers or publishers to published compositions; because this practice was often haphazard at best, missing (unused) numbers do not indicate missing compositions. Many compositions without opus numbers were never officially published but were circulated and performed from copies prepared by copyists (now an extinct profession) or were discovered after the composer's death and were published without an opus number (although in some cases works were published as opus posthumous, with a consecutive number, shortly after the composer’s death.)
This catalog includes the numbering systems (wherever available) of scholars who have devoted their professional lives to cataloging works of individual composers. W. Schmieder catalogued the works of J.S. Bach; his catalog is known as Bach Werke Verzeichnis, and his catalog numbers are thus preceded by the letters BWV. Dr. L.R. von Köchel cataloged works by Mozart; his catalog is known as Köchel Werke Verzeichnis, and his catalog numbers are preceded by the letters KWV, or K for short. O.E. Deutsch cataloged works of Schubert, and his catalog numbers are preceded by the letter D. (For example Schubert's song cycle "Die schöne Mülerin" was published as Opus 25 and is listed in Deutsch's catalog under number 795; we therefore refer to the cycle as Op.25, D795.) The Da Capo Catalog lists all numbers of all the individual catalogs presently in use and identifies at these catalogs at the end of the list of each composer’s work. Appendix (App) or, in German catalogs, Anhang (Anh) numbers refer to the appendices found in those catalogs.
Sections of works are listed in different manners according to the nature of the work.
The numbering of sections of or selections from stage works follows precisely the numbering (often seemingly incomplete or inconsistent) found in the definitive catalogs of the individual composers. In some instances, where no such numbering is given, the Da Capo Catalog uses the numbers asigned by the recording industry in The Gramophone Classical Catalogue, and these are clearly marked as such. For the convenience of the reader, the breakdown of stage works into their component sections is usually listed under a separate heading (e.g. 1a).
In composite works such as suites, sets, cycles of songs, or works consisting of short pieces, each component part has been given its own Da Capo Catalog number (at the far left of the entry). The first component part of the suite or set is inserted between the second and third part of the main catalog entry. For example:
8.27 "7 Characteristic Pieces" (p1827): No.1 “Sanft und mit Empfindung,” in E minor..Op.7
Here “Sanft und mit Empfindung” in E minor is the first piece of “7 Characteristic Pieces.” The third part of the main entry—the opus number, Op. 7—is assigned to all seven pieces, and thus “Sanft und mit Empfindung” is commonly referred to as Op. 7 No. 1. In instrumental suites, sets, etc., the number of the component part is preceded by “No.,” while in vocal works the “No.” is left out; in this manner, a quick glance at a page which contains such works will indicate to the reader whether or not he/she is looking at vocal or instrumental works.
Component parts of integrated compositions (e.g. symphonies), which you would not expect to be performed separately from the other parts, are listed in the catalog only if they contain programmatic information, and are not given Da Capo Catalog numbers on the left (for example, see Mendelssohn 2.15 or 12.29). These parts are numbered without the letters “No.”
(Where sections were left unnumbered in the composer’s catalog, they are preceded simply by a dot instead of a number.)
Lastly, works listed in italics are either: a) compositions you can read about but cannot listen to, such as lost works, fragments, and projects; b) works which were thought to be composed by the composer in question and were once included in catalogs but have since been proven spurious or of doubtful authenticity; or c) arrangements by other composers (some of which are better known than the original works).
In popular music or jazz, listeners look for an artist (or band) and his/her recordings; in classical music, for a composer and his/her compositions. On-demand music providers ignore the difference and offer classical music in the same way as they do popular music or jazz, with a focus on the recordings and not on compositions.
The classical music selection process
Classical music needs to be offered through its own catalog, so that classical music lovers are able to browse and see where a particular composition fits into the oeuvre of the composer, and to explore whether or not are there any other compositions in the same genre by this composer, or whether were they composed before or after this one, etc. Instead, classical music lovers are offered lists of recordings organized by particular recording labels. These do not offer the browsing experience suitable for choosing classical music to listen to.
The browsing experience
“I am browsing through the catalog of classical music displayed on my computer while listening to compositions. I can see all the works, genre by genre, ever composed by the composer I am interested in. I compare dates of different compositions. I calculate the age of composers at the time of composing. I see what they composed before and after. I see more complex works broken down into their component parts. I see literary sources of vocal works. I see who else set to music a particular piece of poetry besides, say, Schubert . . I feel I am enriching myself each time I browse through the Catalog. And when one composition ends, I am ready with my next selection.
Now, I would like to select a particular composition displayed in the Catalog and, in the next window, see what recordings of it are available. Then I choose one to listen to.”
Does a “philatelic catalog” for classical music lovers exist at all?
As a matter of fact, it does. I am the author of it.
The Da Capo Catalog of Classical Music Compositions
ISBN 0-306-80701-7 (paperback)
ISBN 0-306-79666-X (hardcover)
Copyright © 1996 by Jerzy Chwialkowski
Published by Da Capo Press, Inc.
The Catalog is the first in the history of classical music and the only one. It took a life time to put it together. On its 1,400 pages, the Catalog lists all compositions of 132 major composers. It includes all pertinent information about each composition, i.e. its full title, key, date, literary source, instruments, nickname, opus number, and catalog number if any. Larger compositions are broken down into their component parts. Literary sources are cross-referenced when used by more than one composer.
The way that classical music is offered by various music-on-demand services needs to be corrected. So currently, I am offering the digital rights to the Catalog for sale to the interested providers of the classical music-on-demand service.
The Catalog is available in form of 132 Microsoft Word files, one per composer.
Please email your inquiry to Jerzy Chwialkowski at uchwialkowski@rogers.com
Composers
Albéniz, Isaac (Manuel Francisco) (1860–1909, Spanish)
Albinoni, Tommaso Giovanni (1671–1750, Italian)
Bacewicz, Grażyna (1909–1969, Polish)
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788, German)
Bach, Johann (John) Christian (1735–1782, German)
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685–1750, German)
Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–1784, German)
Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich (1837–1910, Russian)
Barber, Samuel (1910–1981, American)
Bartók, Béla (1881–1945, Hungarian)
Beach (née Cheney), Amy Marcy (Mrs. H.H.A. / Mrs. Henry Harris Aubrey) (1867–1944, American)
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770–1827, German)
Bellini, Vincenzo (1801–1835, Italian)
Berg, Alban (Maria Johannes) (1885–1935, Austrian)
Berlioz, (Louis-)Hector (1803–1869, French)
Bernstein, Leonard (1918–1990, American)
Bizet, Georges (Alexandre-César-Léopold) (1838–1875, French)
Bloch, Ernest (1880–1959, Swiss-American)
Boccherini, (Ridolfo) Luigi (1743–1805, Italian)
Borodin, Alexander Porfiryevich (1833–1887, Russian)
Boulez, Pierre (born 1925, French)
Brahms, Johannes (1833–1897, German)
Britten, (Edward) Benjamin (1913–1976, English)
Bruch, Max (Karl August) (1838–1920, German)
Bruckner, (Josef) Anton (1824–1896, Austrian)
Busoni, Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) (1866–1924, Italian)
Buxtehude, Dietrich (Boxdehude / Buchstehude, Diderich) (ca1637–1707, German / Danish)
Cage, John (Milton) (1912–1992, American)
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario (1895–1968, Italian)
Cavalli, Francesco (Caletti-Bruni, Pier Francesco) (1602–1676, Italian)
Chabrier, (Alexis-)Emmanuel (1841–1894, French)
Charpentier, Marc-Antoine (1634–1704, French)
Cherubini, Luigi (Carlo Zanobi Salvatore Maria) (1760–1842, Italian)
Chopin, Fryderyk (Franciszek) (1810–1849, Polish)
Copland, Aaron (1900–1990, American)
Corelli, Arcangelo (1653–1713, Italian)
Couperin, François "Le Grand" (1668–1733, French)
Debussy, (Achille-)Claude (1862–1918, French)
Delius, Frederick (Fritz) (Theodore Albert) (1862–1934, English)
Dohnányi, Ernő (Ernst von) (1877–1960, Hungarian)
Donizetti, (Domenico) Gaetano (Maria) (1797–1848, Italian)
Dupré, Marcel (1886–1971, French)
Dvořák, Antonín (Leopold) (1841–1904, Czech)
Elgar, Sir Edward (William) (1857–1934, English)
Falla (y Matheu), Manuel de (1876–1946, Spanish)
Fauré, Gabriel(-Urbain) (1845–1924, French)
Franck, César(-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert) (1822–1890, French)
Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583–1643, Italian)
Gershwin, George (Jacob) (1898–1937, American)
Glazunov, Alexander Konstantinovich (1865–1936, Russian)
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich (1804–1857, Russian)
Gluck, Christoph Willibald (1714–1787, German)
Gounod, Charles(-François) (1818–1893, French)
Granados (y Campiña), Enrique (1867–1916, Spanish)
Grieg, Edvard (Hagerup) (1843–1907, Norwegian)
Handel, George Frideric (Händel, Georg Friedrich) (1685–1759, German)
Haydn, (Franz) Joseph (1732–1809, Austrian)
Hindemith, Paul (1895–1963, German)
Holst, Gustav(us Theodore von) (1874–1934, English)
Honegger, Arthur (1892–1955, Swiss)
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk (1778–1837, German / Bohemian)
Ives, Charles Edward (1874–1954, American)
Janáček, Leoš (Leo Eugen) (1854–1928, Czech)
Kabalevsky, Dmitri Borisovich (1904–1987, Soviet)
Kalinnikov, Vasily Sergeyevich (1866–1901, Russian)
Khachaturian, Aram Ilyich (1903–1978, Soviet / Armenian)
Kodály, Zoltán (1882–1967, Hungarian)
Lalo, Édouard(-Victoire-Antoine) (1823–1892, French)
Lehár, Franz (Ferenc) (1870–1948, Austrian)
Leoncavallo, Ruggiero (1858–1919, Italian)
Liszt, Franz (Ferenc) (1811–1886, Hungarian)
Lully, Jean-Baptiste (Lulli, Giovanni Battista) (1632–1687, French)
Lutosławski, Witold (1913–1994, Polish)
Mahler, Gustav (1860–1911, Austrian)
Martinů, Bohuslav (Jan) (1890–1959, Czech)
Massenet, Jules(-Émile-Frédéric) (1842–1912, French)
Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix (1809–1847, German)
Messiaen, Olivier(-Eugène-Prosper-Charles) (1908–1992, French)
Meyerbeer, Giacomo (Meyer Beer, Jakob Liebmann) (1791–1864, German)
Milhaud, Darius (1892–1974, French)
Moniuszko, Stanisław (1819–1872, Polish)
Monteverdi, Claudio (Giovanni Antonio) (1567–1643, Italian)
Mozart, (Johannes Chrisostomus) Wolfgang(us) Amadeus (Theophilus Sigismundus)
(1756–1791, Austrian)
Musorgsky, Modest Petrovich (1839–1881, Russian)
Nielsen, Carl (August) (1865–1931, Danish)
Offenbach, Jacques (Jacob) (1819–1880, French)
Orff, Carl (1895–1982, German)
Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (1860–1941, Polish)
Paganini, Niccolò (1782–1840, Italian)
Penderecki, Krzysztof (born 1933, Polish)
Poulenc, Francis (Jean Marcel) (1899–1963, French)
Prokofiev, Sergey Sergeyevich (1891–1953, Soviet)
Puccini, Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) (1858–1924, Italian)
Purcell, Henry (1659–1695, English)
Rachmaninov, Sergey Vasilyevich (1873–1943, Russian)
Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683–1764, French)
Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice (1875–1937, French)
Respighi, Ottorino (1879–1936, Italian)
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolay Andreyevich (1844–1908, Russian)
Rodrigo, Joaquín (born 1901, Spanish)
Rossini, Gioachino (Antonio) (1792–1868, Italian)
Roussel, Albert (Charles Paul Marie) (1869–1937, French)
Saint-Saëns, (Charles-)Camille (1835–1921, French)
Sarasate (y Navascuéz), Pablo (Martín Melitón) de (1844–1908, Spanish)
Satie, Érik(-Alfred-Leslie) (1866–1925, French)
Scarlatti, (Pietro) Alessandro (Gaspare) (1660–1725, Italian)
Scarlatti, (Giuseppe) Domenico (1685–1757, Italian)
Schoenberg (Schönberg), Arnold (Franz Walter) (1874–1951, Austrian)
Schubert, Franz (Peter) (1797–1828, Austrian)
Schumann, Robert (Alexander) (1810–1856, German)
Shostakovich, Dmitry Dmitryevich (1906–1975, Soviet)
Sibelius, Jean (Jan) (Julius Christian) (1865–1957, Finnish)
Skryabin, Alexander Nicolayevich (1872–1915, Russian)
Smetana, Bedřich (1824–1884, Czech)
Spohr, Louis (Ludwig) (1784–1859, German)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz (born 1928, German)
Strauss (I), Johann (Baptist) Sr. (1804–1849, Austrian)
Strauss (II), Johann (Baptist) Jr. (1825–1899, Austrian)
Strauss, Richard (Georg) (1864–1949, German)
Stravinsky, Igor Fyodorovich (1882–1971, Russian)
Sullivan, Sir Arthur (Seymour) (1842–1900, English)
Szymanowski, Karol (Maciej) (1882–1937, Polish)
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840–1893, Russian)
Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872–1958, English)
Verdi, Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) (1813–1901, Italian)
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887–1959, Brasilian)
Vivaldi, Antonio (Lucio) (1678–1741, Italian)
Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard (1813–1883, German)
Weber, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von (1786–1826, German)
Webern, Anton (Friedrich Wilhelm von) (1883–1945, Austrian)
Wieniawski, Henryk (1835–1880, Polish)
Wolf, Hugo (Filipp Jakob) (1860–1903, Austrian)
Introduction
This catalog is the only source available to classical music lovers that exhaustively lists the works of 132 major composers, from Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Bach to Webern, Cage, and Stockhausen. Whether you simply collect favorite recordings and enjoy books about composers and their music, or whether you are a true connoisseur, this catalog will be as indispensable an investment as a philatelic catalog is to the postage stamp collector.
While individual composers and their work have been thoroughly treated in other books, there has never been a volume that collects and organizes all essential information about classical compositions. Similarly, while other books provide plots and lists of characters of operas—useful for operagoers but not quite sufficient for those who listen at home—only this volume dissects numerous stage works into building blocks so that the reader can easily place a particular aria in the context of the whole opera, or quickly grasp the structure of an oratorio. And The Da Capo Catalog also includes lost works, fragments, projects, doubtful and spurious compositions, and arrangements of other composer’s works.
For the novice, the catalog will serve as a notebook and guide:
—You can highlight in it all the compositions you already own to see which works would complete your collection of, say, Mozart's serenades or Dvořák's string quartets.
—You can label your collection using the numbering system on the left of each entry.
—When you hear a radio announcer speak of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.14, you can instantly check whether it is the "Moonlight" or the "Waldstein" sonata.
—When you can find in your record store Perahia's recordings of all of Mozart's piano concertos from No.1 through No.9 and No.11 through No.27, you can instantly discover herein why he did not record Mozart's Piano Concerto No.10.
—If you collect symphonies or string quartets only, you can trace lesser-known ones. You will discover, for example, three symphonies by Borodin and twenty string quartets by the operatic composer Donizetti.
As your expertise grows, so will the power of this book. The connoisseur will appreciate having at his or her fingertips quick answers to questions such as these:
—How many years after Beethoven's "Eroica" did Tchaikovsky compose his "Pathétique"?
—At what age did Brahms compose his first symphony?
—What was Schumann working on when Berlioz published his "Symphonie fantastique"?
—What other works by Beethoven share the musical themes of "Eroica"?
—What American folk tunes, popular melodies, and fragments of other composers' works did Ives build into his compositions?
—What other composers besides Schubert set to music Goethe’s "Gretchen am Spinnrade", and who besides Mendelssohn wrote music to Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?
Each catalog entry consists of the title of the work of the composer, along with the date of composition (or first performance/publication), the source of the lyrics to vocal works, the instruments for which the piece was composed, additional information regarding the provenance of the work, arrangements, orchestration, etc., and its opus and/or catalog numbers. Instrumental compositions which can be considered as collections of individual pieces (e.g. instrumental suites) have been broken down into their constituent sections, and other compositions, like symphonies or string quartets, list the titles of the movements if they contain programmatic information. When the text of a vocal or stage compositions was also used by other composers listed in the catalog, this has also been noted.
The compositions have been grouped first by composer (arranged alphabetically), then in genres: stage music, symphonies, other orchestral, concertos, string quartets, other chamber music, piano, organ, church music, choral, other vocal, songs, arrangements of works of other composers. Within each genre, the compositions are arranged either chronologically or according to the numbering system of the most definitive catalog of the composer's works (e.g. BWV numbers for J.S. Bach). Additional headings and subheadings are introduced when necessary: for example, stage works are subdivided into operas, ballets, incidental music, radio, and film; chamber music is subdivided according to the number of instruments, with separate subheadings for more popular ensembles. And each composition is given its full description, so that regardless of how others may abbreviate the tittle, you will be able to identify it quickly in the catalog.
While using this catalog, please keep in mind that you are travelling through several centuries of classical music history, through generations of musicians and composers, through many countries and languages. In time, the meanings of words used to describe compositions changed (compare Vivaldi's cantatas for one voice and continuo with the elaborate cantatas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and often organ), new genres of music were created (the symphony, the string quartet), new instruments were invented (piano) and old ones improved (valves were added to the horn).
Titles of compositions were evolving as well. Originally a composition may have had a short title and perhaps a long descriptive subtitle, but a substitute title may then have been added. In time a substitute title may have become the main title. A composition may have been given a nickname, which in time may have pushed the original name aside (as is the case with the "Eroica Variations"). Some compositions were composed in one country and published elsewhere with titles in another language (some Russian composers were first published in France). Later, they might have been translated from the original into a third language.
This evolution—reflected in spelling, capitalization, numbering, and use of foreign words (e.g. praeludium, präludium, prélude, prelude; symphony, simphonie, sinfonia)—is part of our cultural heritage, and the catalog tries to preserve it, occasionally at the expense of uniformity or consistency. For the knowledgeable reader, these variations carry valuable information regarding the place and time of composition, the character of the piece, its structure, and more. Therefore only for works well established under their English names has preference been given to the English language. In many cases the work's title in the original language is followed in brackets by its English title (given to the work at the time it entered the repertoire of the English-speaking world, and not necessarily a straight translation).
This catalog was prepared with the classical music lover in mind: the listener, the reader, the collector of recordings. It omits information important mainly to scholars, such as the location of manuscripts or their state of preservation. The bibliography lists catalogs of individual composers should you require more information. The catalog does not address the numerous scholarly controversies surrounding titles of compositions, dating, instruments, authorship of arrangements, etc.—it follows the most authoritative sources, all listed in the bibliography.
The format is as user-friendly as I could make it. (For example, the catalog lists all the BWV numbers of J.S. Bach compositions—even the unused ones—so that the user does not have to wonder what composition a missing number denotes.) The abbreviations listed at the front of the volume are commonly used in books about classical music and are probably already familiar to the reader.
The main focus of the catalog is the well-defined period in music history from Bach and Handel to Schoenberg and Webern. However, the Baroque is also quite well represented, especially with composers who have strong "connections" with the Classic and Romantic eras. There are a few forays into contemporary music, which deserves a separate volume, updated every few years. Some composers were omitted because research into their work is not yet at the stage where each composition could be individually identified, which is the aim of this catalog. Others clearly fell beyond its scope. I regret that for lack of space I could not include such important and prolific composers as Telemann and Palestrina from the Baroque era; Cui, one of "The Mighty Five" of nineteeth-century Russia (the other four are included); Humperdinck, who wrote the ever-popular opera "Hänsel und Gretel"; or Schaeffer, who brought us musique concrète. I am solely responsible for the choice of composers; this choice was, inevitably, personal, and I hope that exclusions will be forgiven.
When I started this catalog many years ago for my own private use, I was astonished and disappointed by the inadequacy and inconsistency of the existing reference sources. They span many decades, originated in different countries, represent different standards, and—or so it seems—were often not subjected to the sharp eye of an editor. Even in the multi-volume New Grove Encyclopedia the lists are remarkably incomplete, the format changes from composer to composer, and the text is cluttered with information important primarily to archivists, making it difficult to use by ordinary classical music lovers such as myself.
I began to write complete lists of compositions based on available scholarly work and to come up with a format that would make using the catalog as easy as changing CDs in a CD player. After researching all the available books about each composer, I would base my list on the most authoritative one, and then check each composition with the other sources. For many composers I had to tap contacts in other countries and often use information available only in the language of the composer. As the work grew, I changed and improved the format of the catalog continuously until I was satisfied that it had become flexible yet coherent enough to accomodate bodies of work as different as those of Chopin and Stockhausen, transparent enough for the average reader yet with sufficient depth for experts, and informative enough to relay the character and significance of each composition. I then tried to reconcile my catalog with catalogs of available recordings such as The Schwann Catalogue, The Gramophone Classical Catalogue, and The New Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes, which involved cross-listing entries by every conceivable numbering and labelling system used there, so that Mozart symphonies do not end at No.41 "Jupiter"—chronologically his last—but at No.55; and one Beethoven sonata can be found listed as Op.27 No.2, Piano Sonata No.14, Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, and simply "Moonlight" Sonata.
So here it is, the first of its kind, a catalog for classical music lovers. In its various stages of completion, it has served me and continues to serve me well. Now I share it with you in the hope that it will become a well-appreciated companion in your journeys through musical history, and that it will enrich your experience of the highest achievements of human talent and spirit.
Explanatory Notes
The typical entry in the catalog contains three parts and is explained here on the basis of examples from Mendelssohn.
1.7 "Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde" (Son and Stranger), 1 act operetta (c1829, Klingemann)... Op.89
The first part of the entry pertains to the title of the composition. After The Da Capo Catalog number—1.7—is the proper title of the work—“Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde.” It is followed in parentheses by the English title—“Son and Stranger.” If the text in brackets is in the same language as the proper title of the composition, it indicates another name under which the composition is known. For example:
8.13 "Recitativo" (Largo) in D minor (c1820)...
"Recitativo" in D minor is also known as "Largo" in D minor; in various sources you may find it listed either way, but it is the same work composed in 1820.
Some instrumental compositions were given nicknames: these are placed in double quotation marks after the key of the composition. For example:
8.43 No.2 "Andante espressivo," in A minor, “Regrets”....
The nickname is "Regrets."
Many of the entries for songs and other vocal works list the first words of the composition. Those are shown in double quotation marks following the title (or titles) of the composition, and are preceded by a colon. For example:
17.3 "Die Nachtigall": “Da ging ich hin” (c ?1821-2)...
The name of the song is "Die Nachtigall". The first words are "Da ging ich hin."
To go back to our main example, Mendelssohn 1.7, the next words—1 act operetta—describe the genre of the composition in greater detail. This first part of the entry always ends at the parenthesis before the date of composition.
If a title is generic (Symphony, String Quartet, Piano Sonata) it is not listed in quotation marks, and is often followed by a number. In many instances this number has been assigned by the recording industry, often based on numbers in published collections. For example, Chopin’s mazurkas received numbers from 1 to 62. The first numbers, 1 to 49, follow a more or less chronological order, while numbers 50 to 62 represent mazurkas previously unknown or unnoticed (generally earlier versions of those previously known), in no particular order except that of their inclusion in the body of performed works. Another instance is Mozart’s violin sonatas, numbered from 1 to 36, where a group of six so-called “Aurnhammer-Sonaten” (Nos. 17 and 24–28) were not given consecutive numbers. Scholars usually spurn these numbers as “not valid” because obviously they were never sanctioned by the composer, but the listener is constantly confronted with them on recordings and in the catalogs of recordings. Since the industry quite notoriously shortens composition titles (for lack of space), often omitting catalog numbers, and since books by scholars omit numbering systems of the recording industry, the classical music lover trying to correlate both worlds is left in a vacuum. The Da Capo Catalog fills this void by including all applicable numbers.
The second part of the entry gives the basic information about the composition. In our main example, this consists of its date of composition—1829—and the name of the librettist—Klingeman. Sometimes after the date of composition is the date of revision. For example:
13.4 "Die erste Walpurgisnacht," cantata (c1832, r1843, Goethe; ch & orch)..Op.60
For ballets and incidental music, instead of the name of the librettist that of the playwright is given; for songs, that of the poet; for film scores, that of the principal screenwriter or director. Following this source information is often detail about the instrumental or vocal ensemble (always preceded by a semi-colon). The above cantata, Mendelssohn 13.4, was composed for chorus and orchestra. This information may in turn be followed by additional information about the work. For example:
3.8 "Trauermarsch," in A minor (c1836, milit band, in memory of N. Burgmüller)..Op.13
And this information may, after a semi-colon, be followed by information regarding other compositions or arrangements the composition influenced or in which its material was used.
Please keep in mind that double quotation marks (“) indicate titles of works or the first words of a vocal composition; single quotation marks (‘) indicate a quotation related to a work which is not its title.
The third part of the entry consists of the opus number and (if there is one) the catalog number of the work. In the case of our main example, Mendelssohn 1.7, this is simply the opus number: Op. 89. Some opus numbers are shown in parenthesis, which signifies that the number is used by association with another form of the same work and that the other form was originally published with that opus number. Other opus numbers are shown as “op.” rather than “Op.”; this usually indicates an abandoned numbering of a composer’s juvenile works.
Opus numbers were asigned by composers or publishers to published compositions; because this practice was often haphazard at best, missing (unused) numbers do not indicate missing compositions. Many compositions without opus numbers were never officially published but were circulated and performed from copies prepared by copyists (now an extinct profession) or were discovered after the composer's death and were published without an opus number (although in some cases works were published as opus posthumous, with a consecutive number, shortly after the composer’s death.)
This catalog includes the numbering systems (wherever available) of scholars who have devoted their professional lives to cataloging works of individual composers. W. Schmieder catalogued the works of J.S. Bach; his catalog is known as Bach Werke Verzeichnis, and his catalog numbers are thus preceded by the letters BWV. Dr. L.R. von Köchel cataloged works by Mozart; his catalog is known as Köchel Werke Verzeichnis, and his catalog numbers are preceded by the letters KWV, or K for short. O.E. Deutsch cataloged works of Schubert, and his catalog numbers are preceded by the letter D. (For example Schubert's song cycle "Die schöne Mülerin" was published as Opus 25 and is listed in Deutsch's catalog under number 795; we therefore refer to the cycle as Op.25, D795.) The Da Capo Catalog lists all numbers of all the individual catalogs presently in use and identifies at these catalogs at the end of the list of each composer’s work. Appendix (App) or, in German catalogs, Anhang (Anh) numbers refer to the appendices found in those catalogs.
Sections of works are listed in different manners according to the nature of the work.
The numbering of sections of or selections from stage works follows precisely the numbering (often seemingly incomplete or inconsistent) found in the definitive catalogs of the individual composers. In some instances, where no such numbering is given, the Da Capo Catalog uses the numbers asigned by the recording industry in The Gramophone Classical Catalogue, and these are clearly marked as such. For the convenience of the reader, the breakdown of stage works into their component sections is usually listed under a separate heading (e.g. 1a).
In composite works such as suites, sets, cycles of songs, or works consisting of short pieces, each component part has been given its own Da Capo Catalog number (at the far left of the entry). The first component part of the suite or set is inserted between the second and third part of the main catalog entry. For example:
8.27 "7 Characteristic Pieces" (p1827): No.1 “Sanft und mit Empfindung,” in E minor..Op.7
Here “Sanft und mit Empfindung” in E minor is the first piece of “7 Characteristic Pieces.” The third part of the main entry—the opus number, Op. 7—is assigned to all seven pieces, and thus “Sanft und mit Empfindung” is commonly referred to as Op. 7 No. 1. In instrumental suites, sets, etc., the number of the component part is preceded by “No.,” while in vocal works the “No.” is left out; in this manner, a quick glance at a page which contains such works will indicate to the reader whether or not he/she is looking at vocal or instrumental works.
Component parts of integrated compositions (e.g. symphonies), which you would not expect to be performed separately from the other parts, are listed in the catalog only if they contain programmatic information, and are not given Da Capo Catalog numbers on the left (for example, see Mendelssohn 2.15 or 12.29). These parts are numbered without the letters “No.”
(Where sections were left unnumbered in the composer’s catalog, they are preceded simply by a dot instead of a number.)
Lastly, works listed in italics are either: a) compositions you can read about but cannot listen to, such as lost works, fragments, and projects; b) works which were thought to be composed by the composer in question and were once included in catalogs but have since been proven spurious or of doubtful authenticity; or c) arrangements by other composers (some of which are better known than the original works).
posted by Jerzy Chwialkowski at 12:37 PM
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