How to catalogue classical music... advice please

Pigeon_Fancier,

Here are the tags I use with my flac files

ALBUM
ARTIST
ALBUMARTISTS
CONDUCTOR

GENRE
PERIOD
STYLE

COMPOSER
OPUS
COMPOSITION
TITLE (movement)
INSTRUMENTS

The CONDUCTOR tag contains the conductor name and/or orchestra name.
But, for me, the most important tags are COMPOSER/COMPOSITION/OPUS.

I do the tag work with Musichi Tagger : https://www.musichi.eu/

Hope it helps

Tom

There are two things, metadata and file organisation. For the latter I do the following:

• Classical Music
  • Composers
    • Composer Name 
      • Box Set Title (Only for Box Sets)
        • Album Title
  • Interpreters
    • Interpreter Name
      • Box Set Title (Only for Box Sets)
        • Album Title
  • Compilations
    • Box Set Title (Only for Box Sets)
      • Album Title

I use the Composers folder when the album includes complete works from only one composer, the Interpreters one when the album includes works from diferent composers interpreted by only one ensemble or artist. For the rest I use Compilations. I buy mainly by composer and artist/ensemble.

Thanks both. Appreciate the thoughtful  replies - filing structure is exactly what I need. I hadn’t thought about using different groupings for the same track. So the next question is whether you do the tagging automatically through some sort of template or manually. Presumably the former. Will explore your suggestions (iTunes doesn’t seem sophisticated enough for this purpose).

Thanks again! 

Pigeon_Fancier posted:

Thanks both. Appreciate the thoughtful  replies - filing structure is exactly what I need. I hadn’t thought about using different groupings for the same track. So the next question is whether you do the tagging automatically through some sort of template or manually. Presumably the former. Will explore your suggestions (iTunes doesn’t seem sophisticated enough for this purpose).

Thanks again! 

Go straight to Roon. Do not pass go. Do not collect whatever it is now...,...

Life’s too short to be tagging. Live instead...

Pigeon_Fancier posted:

 (iTunes doesn’t seem sophisticated enough for this purpose).

What hardware are you using? Once your music has escaped from iTunes, you can use other metadata editors to organise your music, such as Metadatics or MP3tag, which you may find more versatile. 

Pigeon_Fancier posted:

Thanks both. Appreciate the thoughtful  replies

You're welcome :-)

One last word. For classical music the concept of "Album" doesn't make sens. You have to think in terms of  Composer/Composition. That's the core. The rest (performers, orchestra, conductor...) is complementary. 

Here is a very interesting and helpful reading :

https://musichieu.wordpress.com/tagging-audio-topics/

Really helpful info, thanks. Working through the musichieu article - it’s a goldmine. I posted the question with some trepidation but it turns out the topic is a thing - as I believe the youth say. Understanding now that different approaches to tagging and cataloguing gives me flex to organise to my tastes, not just an archiving hassle. 

Re hardware, mojo/poly into 252 or nait 1. So a basic front-end - its all relative, right! Enjoying it so far although haven’t got into ‘serious listening’. More just set-up, experimentation etc. 

Finished reading the musichieu article. Good mix of beginners guide to classical music, quirky humour and practical advice. One such nugget: ‘What can I listen to for my breakfast ambience composed in 1805?’, i.e. you don’t need an encyclopaedia, just a sensible way to find stuff.