[Advil]

Good evening!

I have a really stupid question, when it comes to classical music, theres usually a letter and some numbers following a title. For example Mozart K622 Clarinet Concerto, or Bach's Sanctus in D minor BWV239. What do these Letters and Digits mean!?

Thank you for accepting me for the idiot that I am

 

[Blueiz]

It is a cataloging system.... The letters are initals for the full (usually foreign) name of the catalog and the numbers are chronological (but, not always) order of composition. IIRC.

 

[mbhaub]

This is easy. Most composers assign numbers to their compositions (opus) in the order they write them, hence Beethoven Symphony no. 3 op. 55 means it was the 55th work he wrote that thought enough of to officially number.

Some composers were very lax about doing this, and for earlier composers wasn't even thought of. So latter-day musicologists attempt to determine the correct order and assign a number.

Mozart K440. The K stands for Koechel. Ludwig Koechel was a scientist and keen amateur musician who loved Mozart's music and took on the task in the 19th century. It has been revised and corrected several times since then, but the K still stand.

Bach BWV239 means Bach Werke Verzeichnis: Bach Work Catalog in German.

There are of course others:

Louis Moreau Gottschalk has RO numbers, for Robert Offergeld.
Franz Schubert has D for Otto Deutsch's catalog.
Vivaldi has RV for Ryom-Verzeichnis from Danish musicologist Peter Ryom’s catalogue published in 1974.

Hope that helps!

 

[Advil]

Ah, thank you! That was a very helpful post. Do you know of a reference for these abbreviations? Something I can look at when I see them to know what exactly which composition and such?

 

[mbhaub]

There really aren't too many you're likely to encounter.

H for Hoboken did Haydn.
Scarlatti was cataloged by Kirkpatrick in 1953. So a Scarlatti K looks an awful lot like Mozart K. Alessandro Longo actually did Scarlatti first, but too many errors let K take over.

Handel has the HWV.

By the way, the BWV was mostly done by Wolfgang Schmieder in mid-1900s.

As far a a reference, you might try Groves. The was once a book called The Book of Classical Music Lists that probably has a more than I have given you.

Also, you will occassionally see Woo attached to a work. It means Work Without Opus number. It's from the German "Werk Ohne Opuszahl". Happens when composers die before assigning a number, or they don't like it.

 

[caterpillar_36]

Here's a good site:
http://www.classical.net/music/composer/opus.html

 

[Bunnyears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbhaub /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, you will occassionally see Woo attached to a work. It means Work Without Opus number. It's from the German "Werk Ohne Opuszahl". Happens when composers die before assigning a number, or they don't like it.

Mb has really given a very complete explanation of the catalog numbers that have puzzled you!

I'd just like to add a little more information about the Beethoven WoO which comprise works that he didn't publish and therefore didn't number himself. He didn't publish them because he felt they were not of high enough quality or because he never completed them. The WoO include some early works, preliminary versions of published works (such as the early version of Für Elise WoO 55), as well as incomplete fragments and parts of larger projects he either abandoned or did not complete for other reasons. After his death when someone finally sorted through all of his papers, they came upon these works and then published them with the reference Werke ohne Opuszahl. Properly, in German nouns are always capitalized, so it's always written WoO. I believe that in the mid 1950s someone then numbered these WoO.