Wikipedia:Naming conventions (music)

Main page: Wikipedia:Article titles

This page contains naming conventions for music-related articles, covering both classical musical works and popular bands, albums and songs.

Compositions (classical music)

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (operas)

Definitions - italics

Generic and non-generic names

Compositions have one or more generic or non-generic names:

Generic name	Non-generic name
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)	Resurrection Symphony
Serenade in G major, K. 525	Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Aria, BWV 508	Bist du bei mir
song cycle Op. 25 (Schubert)	Die schöne Müllerin
Variations on a Theme by Haydn	Saint Anthony Variations
—	Pavane pour une infante défunte
Pavane (Fauré)	—
Sonata in B minor (Liszt)	—

Non-generic names are italicised, except those of individual dances, songs, lieder and arias (e.g. The Blue Danube, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Heidenröslein, Madamina, il catalogo è questo), and separate movements of larger works (e.g. Air on the G String).

Generic and non-generic composition types

Most compositions belong to a generic composition type:

Composition type	Examples
—	Vexations
symphony	Sinfonia da Requiem Symphony in C major (Wagner)
sonatina	Sonatina (Bartók) Sonatine bureaucratique
concerto for two pianos and orchestra	Piano Concerto No. 10 (Mozart) Concerto for Two Pianos (Stravinsky)
incidental music	A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) Rosamunde
piano quintet	Trout Quintet Piano Quintet (Schumann)

A generic name for a generic composition type is not italicised.

In some exceptional cases what in the wording looks like a generic name is treated as a non-generic name:

• Concerto for Group and Orchestra
• Adagio for Strings

Quotation marks and partially italicized titles

Quotation marks should be avoided, except for the name of a theme in a set of variations in a generic article title:

• Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"
• Variations on "I Got Rhythm"

Otherwise the use of quotation marks in generic artitle titles is limited to a very few exceptions:

• Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks"

Partially italicized article titles are likewise unusual for compositions (that is, apart from never italicizing comma-separated and parenthical disambiguators):

• William Tell Overture ("Overture" not italicized while the composition is a part of a larger work, the opera with the same name - compare Coriolan Overture, not part of a larger work)

Italics and quotation marks should never be used together in a single article title.

Capitalization of generic names

Further information: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization), Wikipedia:Article Titles § Article title format, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Music

Generic names of compositions (sonata, partita, quartet, symhony,...) should not be capitalized beyond the first character of an article title in descriptive article titles. Examples:

• Schubert's last sonatas
• List of symphonies with names

Similar for article titles of articles on the composition types themselves:

• Violin sonata

Whether or not a title is descriptive often needs editor discretion:

• String symphonies (Mendelssohn)
• Orchestral suites (Bach)

but:

• String Quartets (Schoenberg)
• Cello Suites (Bach)

Other than that, generic names of compositions are capitalized in article titles on a single composition,

• Always when the generic name is part of an English-language non-generic article title:
  • An Alpine Symphony
• For untranslated and untransliterated non-generic article titles from other languages, use the convention of the language of origin:
  • Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale
  • Prélude, Choral et Fugue (Franck)
• For extinct languages like Latin the convention can be less clear, so depends largely on consensus and how the available sources would generally write the name:
  • Missa Brevis (Britten)
  • Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo
• Usually in all other cases:
  • Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra (Mozart)
  • Violin Sonata (Franck)
• However, not always:
  • Violin sonata in A major (HWV 361)

Instrumentation included in generic names:

• Capitalized as part of the name of the composition:
  • Trio Sonata for Two Flutes (W. F. Bach)
• Not capitalized as natural disambiguator (after the key signature if there is one):
  • Sonata in G major for 2 flutes and basso continuo

Common names and nicknames

• As a general rule, when naming articles about pieces of classical music, use the most common form of the name. Do not include nicknames except when the work is almost exclusively known by its nickname (for example, Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet) – nicknames can vary from country to country and age to age, so what is familiar in one part of the world may be completely unfamiliar elsewhere.

Disambiguation

• If the name of the piece is shared by another piece or pieces, include the composer's surname in parentheses following the name of the piece. For example Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók), Concerto for Orchestra (Lutosławski); Violin Concerto (Beethoven), Violin Concerto (Berg).
• An extra level of disambiguation may be required if one composer has written several works with the same title (this is particularly true of works with generic titles like "Symphony" or "String Quartet"). The title should refer to the work in whatever way is most common in other publications. If this method is insufficient for describing one piece individually, the following methods should be used in order until the title is unique:
  • Cardinal (or series) number: Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius), Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), Symphony No. 1 (Mahler) – A period follows the "No".
  • Opus number: String Quartets, Op. 76 (Haydn)
  • Key: Prelude in C-sharp minor (Rachmaninoff) – The key letter is uppercase, the word sharp or flat is lowercase and follows the letter with a hyphen, and the word minor or major is lowercase and follows with a space.
  • Catalogue number: Violin sonata in A major (HWV 361) (see Opus number for an indication of which composers these might apply to). Try to avoid catalogue numbers if possible, however, as they are unfamiliar to most people. In particular, be wary of using Köchel (K) numbers for Mozart, as some pieces are given different numbers in different editions of the catalogue.

Articles in series

• Article titles for compositions in the same, or similar forms, should always be precise and consistent, per WP:NAMINGCRITERIA. Examples of this kind of series are the Bach cello suites, Beethoven piano concertos, Dvořák symphonies etc. Normally the series will be numbered, e.g. Symphony No. 1 (Mahler), Piano Concerto No. 21 (Mozart) etc., though on occasion they may be differentiated by opus number, such as the string quartets of Haydn (e.g. String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)) or Chopin nocturnes (e.g. Nocturnes, Op. 9 (Chopin)), or by catalogue number, such as the Bach cantatas (e.g. Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51), or by some other well-established method, including a prevalent non-generic name such as Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which should have a redirect from the systematic name. In all cases, current scholarly practice should be followed. (Numbering schemes or title forms that are not generally accepted should be avoided, and they should not be invented.)

Unique names

• If the name of the piece is unique to that one piece, then the title should be the name of the piece alone. For example, Enigma Variations, War Requiem, Piano Phase. Note that what we mean by a unique name here is a unique descriptive name, and not names that are unique only because of opus number, catalogue number or key.

Facilitate easy navigation

Redirects

always consider making redirects to the article from other plausible names to aid searching, and avoid people creating duplicate articles. For example, if you create Piano Trio No. 1 (Schubert), consider making redirects to it from Piano Trio in B-flat major (Schubert) and Piano Trio, D. 898 (Schubert).

Navboxes

compositions may be described under article titles without opus number, catalogue number, nickname and other characteristics that may be highly recognisable to some readers: series should always have navboxes with such additional information and/or link to a list article that contains the details.

Category sorting

choose a clear sorting scheme for all compositions in a category, that is also as intuitive as possible to readers less familiar with the topic.

Bands, albums and songs

Do not replicate stylized typography in logos and album art, though a redirect may be appropriate (for example, KoЯn redirects to Korn).

Capitalization

Capitalization of band names should be consistent with the guidelines for trademarks.

Capitalization of song titles and album titles should be consistent with the guidelines for composition titles; in particular, capitalize the first and last word and all other words except:

• coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
• prepositions shorter than five letters (in, to, over)
• articles (an, a, the)
• the word to when used to form an infinitive.

Note that short verbs (Is, Are, and Do) and pronouns (Me, It, and His) are capitalized.

Disambiguation

When necessary, disambiguation should be done using "(band)", "(album)", or "(song)" (such as Queen (band) or H.M.S. Donovan (album)). As per WP:Disambiguation disambiguate by article content, not just by titles; for example, even though there is no article Hurricane, the redirect Hurricane should not be replaced with Hurricane (song) or Hurricane (album).

Use further disambiguation only when needed (for example X (American band), X (Australian band)). Unless multiple albums (or songs) of the same name exist, they do not need to be disambiguated any further. For example, Down to Earth (Ozzy Osbourne album) is fine, because there are many other albums named Down to Earth, but H.M.S. Donovan (Donovan album) is unnecessary. Disambiguate albums and songs by artist and not by year unless the artist has released multiple albums (or songs) with the same name. When a track is not strictly a song (in other words a composition without lyrics, or an instrumental that is not a cover of a song), disambiguation should be done using "(composition)" or "(instrumental)". However if another (song) exists, both the (song) and the (instrumental) will still require artist name.

If EPs are genuinely notable as an EP, and not for the main song on the EP, then the disambiguation should be "(EP)" unless "EP" is itself part of the title, as in The Black EP or The Green EP (Professor Green).

See also

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (music)
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Classical music