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Opus number

January 26, 2023

In musicology, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's production. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles; the word is abbreviated as "Op." for a single work, or "Opp." when referring to more than one work.

To indicate the specific place of a given work within a music catalogue, the opus number is paired with a cardinal number; for example, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1801, nicknamed Moonlight Sonata) is "Opus 27, No. 2", whose work-number identifies it as a companion piece to "Opus 27, No. 1" (Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, 1800–01), paired in same opus number, with both being subtitled Sonata quasi una Fantasia, the only two of the kind in all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Furthermore, the Piano Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2, in C-sharp minor is also catalogued as "Sonata No. 14", because it is the fourteenth sonata composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Given composers' inconsistent or non-existent assignment of opus numbers, especially during the Baroque (1600–1750) and the Classical (1750–1827) eras, musicologists have developed other catalogue-number systems; among them the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV-number), and the Köchel-Verzeichnis (K- and KV-numbers) which enumerate the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, respectively.

Etymology

In the classical period, the Latin word opus ("work", "labour"), plural opera, was used to identify, list, and catalogue a work of art.[1]

By the 15th and 16th centuries, the word opus was used by Italian composers to denote a specific musical composition, and by German composers for collections of music. In compositional practice, numbering musical works in chronological order dates from 17th-century Italy, especially Venice. In common usage, the word opus is used to describe the best work of an artist with the term magnum opus.[2]

In Latin, the words opus (singular) and opera (plural) are related to the words opera (singular) and operae (plural), which gave rise to the Italian words opera (singular) and opere (plural), likewise meaning "work". In contemporary English, the word opera has specifically come to denote the dramatic musical genres of opera or ballet, which were developed in Italy.[3] As a result, the plural opera of opus tends to be avoided in English. In other languages such as German, however, it remains common.

Early usage

In the arts, an opus number usually denotes a work of musical composition, a practice and usage established in the seventeenth century when composers identified their works with an opus number. In the eighteenth century, publishers usually assigned opus numbers when publishing groups of like compositions, usually in sets of three, six or twelve compositions. Consequently, opus numbers are not usually in chronological order, unpublished compositions usually had no opus number, and numeration gaps and sequential duplications occurred when publishers issued contemporaneous editions of a composer's works, as in the sets of string quartets by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827); Haydn's Op. 76, the Erdödy quartets (1796–97), comprises six discrete quartets consecutively numbered Op. 76 No. 1 – Op. 76 No. 6; whilst Beethoven's Op. 59, the Rasumovsky quartets (1805–06), comprises String Quartet No. 7, String Quartet No. 8, and String Quartet No. 9.

19th century to date

From about 1800, composers usually assigned an opus number to a work or set of works upon publication. After approximately 1900, they tended to assign an opus number to a composition whether published or not. However, practices were not always perfectly consistent or logical. For example, early in his career, Beethoven selectively numbered his compositions (some published without opus numbers), yet in later years, he published early works with high opus numbers. Likewise, some posthumously published works were given high opus numbers by publishers, even though some of them were written early in Beethoven's career. Since his death in 1827, the un-numbered compositions have been cataloged and labeled with the German acronym WoO (Werk ohne Opuszahl), meaning "work without opus number"; the same has been done with other composers who used opus numbers. (There are also other catalogs of Beethoven's works – see Catalogues of Beethoven compositions.)

The practice of enumerating a posthumous opus ("Op. posth.") is noteworthy in the case of Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47); after his death, the heirs published many compositions with opus numbers that Mendelssohn did not assign. In life, he published two symphonies (Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11; and Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56), furthermore he published his symphony-cantata Lobgesang, Op. 52, which was posthumously counted as his Symphony No. 2; yet, he chronologically wrote symphonies between symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, which he withdrew for personal and compositional reasons; nevertheless, the Mendelssohn heirs published (and cataloged) them as the Italian Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, and as the Reformation Symphony No. 5 in D major and D minor, Op. 107.

While many of the works of Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) were given opus numbers, these did not always bear a logical relationship to the order in which the works were written or published. To achieve better sales, some publishers, such as N. Simrock, preferred to present less experienced composers as being well established, by giving some relatively early works much higher opus numbers than their chronological order would merit. In other cases, Dvořák gave lower opus numbers to new works to be able to sell them to other publishers outside his contract obligations. This way it could happen that the same opus number was given to more than one of his works. Opus number 12, for example, was assigned, successively, to five different works (an opera, a concert overture, a string quartet, and two unrelated piano works). In other cases, the same work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers. The sequential numbering of his symphonies has also been confused: (a) they were initially numbered by order of publication, not composition; (b) the first four symphonies to be composed were published after the last five; and (c) the last five symphonies were not published in order of composition. The New World Symphony originally was published as No. 5, later was known as No. 8, and definitively was renumbered as No. 9 in the critical editions published in the 1950s.

Other examples of composers' historically inconsistent opus-number usages include the cases of César Franck (1822–1890), Béla Bartók (1881–1945), and Alban Berg (1885–1935), who initially numbered, but then stopped numbering their compositions. Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) and Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) were also inconsistent in their approaches. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was consistent and assigned an opus number to a composition before composing it; at his death, he left fragmentary and planned, but numbered, works. In revising a composition, Prokofiev occasionally assigned a new opus number to the revision; thus Symphony No. 4 is two thematically related but discrete works: Symphony No. 4, Op. 47, written in 1929; and Symphony No. 4, Op. 112, a large-scale revision written in 1947. Likewise, depending upon the edition, the original version of Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major, is cataloged both as Op. 38 and as Op. 135.

Despite being used in more or less normal fashion by a number of important early-twentieth-century composers, including Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and Anton Webern (1883–1945), opus numbers became less common in the later part of the twentieth century.

Other catalogues

Main article: Catalogues of classical compositions

To manage inconsistent opus-number usages — especially by composers of the Baroque (1600–1750) and of the Classical (1720—1830) music eras — musicologists have developed comprehensive and unambiguous catalogue number-systems for the works of composers such as:

See also

References

  1. ^ Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary, s.v. "opus".
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "opus". Retrieved from http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/132110.
  3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "opera, n. 1", "opera, n. 2"

January 26, 2023
opus, number, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, october, 2010. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Opus number news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2010 Learn how and when to remove this template message In musicology the opus number is the work number that is assigned to a musical composition or to a set of compositions to indicate the chronological order of the composer s production Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles the word is abbreviated as Op for a single work or Opp when referring to more than one work To indicate the specific place of a given work within a music catalogue the opus number is paired with a cardinal number for example Beethoven s Piano Sonata No 14 in C sharp minor 1801 nicknamed Moonlight Sonata is Opus 27 No 2 whose work number identifies it as a companion piece to Opus 27 No 1 Piano Sonata No 13 in E flat major 1800 01 paired in same opus number with both being subtitled Sonata quasi una Fantasia the only two of the kind in all of Beethoven s 32 piano sonatas Furthermore the Piano Sonata Op 27 No 2 in C sharp minor is also catalogued as Sonata No 14 because it is the fourteenth sonata composed by Ludwig van Beethoven Given composers inconsistent or non existent assignment of opus numbers especially during the Baroque 1600 1750 and the Classical 1750 1827 eras musicologists have developed other catalogue number systems among them the Bach Werke Verzeichnis BWV number and the Kochel Verzeichnis K and KV numbers which enumerate the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart respectively Contents 1 Etymology 2 Early usage 3 19th century to date 4 Other catalogues 5 See also 6 ReferencesEtymology EditIn the classical period the Latin word opus work labour plural opera was used to identify list and catalogue a work of art 1 By the 15th and 16th centuries the word opus was used by Italian composers to denote a specific musical composition and by German composers for collections of music In compositional practice numbering musical works in chronological order dates from 17th century Italy especially Venice In common usage the word opus is used to describe the best work of an artist with the term magnum opus 2 In Latin the words opus singular and opera plural are related to the words opera singular and operae plural which gave rise to the Italian words opera singular and opere plural likewise meaning work In contemporary English the word opera has specifically come to denote the dramatic musical genres of opera or ballet which were developed in Italy 3 As a result the plural opera of opus tends to be avoided in English In other languages such as German however it remains common Early usage EditIn the arts an opus number usually denotes a work of musical composition a practice and usage established in the seventeenth century when composers identified their works with an opus number In the eighteenth century publishers usually assigned opus numbers when publishing groups of like compositions usually in sets of three six or twelve compositions Consequently opus numbers are not usually in chronological order unpublished compositions usually had no opus number and numeration gaps and sequential duplications occurred when publishers issued contemporaneous editions of a composer s works as in the sets of string quartets by Joseph Haydn 1732 1809 and Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 1827 Haydn s Op 76 the Erdody quartets 1796 97 comprises six discrete quartets consecutively numbered Op 76 No 1 Op 76 No 6 whilst Beethoven s Op 59 the Rasumovsky quartets 1805 06 comprises String Quartet No 7 String Quartet No 8 and String Quartet No 9 19th century to date EditFrom about 1800 composers usually assigned an opus number to a work or set of works upon publication After approximately 1900 they tended to assign an opus number to a composition whether published or not However practices were not always perfectly consistent or logical For example early in his career Beethoven selectively numbered his compositions some published without opus numbers yet in later years he published early works with high opus numbers Likewise some posthumously published works were given high opus numbers by publishers even though some of them were written early in Beethoven s career Since his death in 1827 the un numbered compositions have been cataloged and labeled with the German acronym WoO Werk ohne Opuszahl meaning work without opus number the same has been done with other composers who used opus numbers There are also other catalogs of Beethoven s works see Catalogues of Beethoven compositions The practice of enumerating a posthumous opus Op posth is noteworthy in the case of Felix Mendelssohn 1809 47 after his death the heirs published many compositions with opus numbers that Mendelssohn did not assign In life he published two symphonies Symphony No 1 in C minor Op 11 and Symphony No 3 in A minor Op 56 furthermore he published his symphony cantata Lobgesang Op 52 which was posthumously counted as his Symphony No 2 yet he chronologically wrote symphonies between symphonies Nos 1 and 2 which he withdrew for personal and compositional reasons nevertheless the Mendelssohn heirs published and cataloged them as the Italian Symphony No 4 in A major Op 90 and as the Reformation Symphony No 5 in D major and D minor Op 107 While many of the works of Antonin Dvorak 1841 1904 were given opus numbers these did not always bear a logical relationship to the order in which the works were written or published To achieve better sales some publishers such as N Simrock preferred to present less experienced composers as being well established by giving some relatively early works much higher opus numbers than their chronological order would merit In other cases Dvorak gave lower opus numbers to new works to be able to sell them to other publishers outside his contract obligations This way it could happen that the same opus number was given to more than one of his works Opus number 12 for example was assigned successively to five different works an opera a concert overture a string quartet and two unrelated piano works In other cases the same work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers The sequential numbering of his symphonies has also been confused a they were initially numbered by order of publication not composition b the first four symphonies to be composed were published after the last five and c the last five symphonies were not published in order of composition The New World Symphony originally was published as No 5 later was known as No 8 and definitively was renumbered as No 9 in the critical editions published in the 1950s Other examples of composers historically inconsistent opus number usages include the cases of Cesar Franck 1822 1890 Bela Bartok 1881 1945 and Alban Berg 1885 1935 who initially numbered but then stopped numbering their compositions Carl Nielsen 1865 1931 and Paul Hindemith 1895 1963 were also inconsistent in their approaches Sergei Prokofiev 1891 1953 was consistent and assigned an opus number to a composition before composing it at his death he left fragmentary and planned but numbered works In revising a composition Prokofiev occasionally assigned a new opus number to the revision thus Symphony No 4 is two thematically related but discrete works Symphony No 4 Op 47 written in 1929 and Symphony No 4 Op 112 a large scale revision written in 1947 Likewise depending upon the edition the original version of Piano Sonata No 5 in C major is cataloged both as Op 38 and as Op 135 Despite being used in more or less normal fashion by a number of important early twentieth century composers including Arnold Schoenberg 1874 1951 and Anton Webern 1883 1945 opus numbers became less common in the later part of the twentieth century Other catalogues EditMain article Catalogues of classical compositions To manage inconsistent opus number usages especially by composers of the Baroque 1600 1750 and of the Classical 1720 1830 music eras musicologists have developed comprehensive and unambiguous catalogue number systems for the works of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach catalogued with a BWV number a Bach Werke Verzeichnis number assigned by Wolfgang Schmieder however older sources occasionally use S numbers Dietrich Buxtehude catalogued with a BuxWV number a Buxtehude Werke Verzeichnis work number Marc Antoine Charpentier identified with an H number per H W Hitchcock s comprehensive catalogue Frederic Chopin three catalogue systems have been applied i B numbers by Maurice J E Brown ii KK numbers by Krystyna Kobylanska and iii work letters A C D E P and S by Jozef Michal Chominski Generally these alternative music catalogue systems identified compositions that the composer had not numbered Claude Debussy identified with an L number per Francois Lesure s comprehensive catalogue Antonin Dvorak identified with a B number per Jarmil Burghauser s comprehensive catalogue which resolved the problems of different and duplicate opus numbers assigned by the publishers of Dvorak s music Joseph Haydn identified with a Hob number per the 1957 catalogue by Anthony van Hoboken Although he assigned Hoboken numbers to the string quartets those compositions usually are known by opus numbers Franz Liszt identified with an S number per the catalogue The Music of Liszt 1960 by Humphrey Searle Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart identified either with a K number or with a KV number Kochel Verzeichnis nummer per the catalogue system of Ludwig Ritter von Kochel Niccolo Paganini identified with an MS number per the 1982 Catalogo tematico by Moretti and Sorrento Domenico Scarlatti identified with three catalogue systems i L numbers per the 1906 catalogue by Alessandro Longo ii K numbers and Kk numbers per the 1953 catalogue by Ralph Kirkpatrick and iii P numbers per the 1967 catalogue by Giorgio Pestelli Franz Schubert identified with a D number per the catalogue of Otto Erich Deutsch Maurice Ravel identified with an M number per the 1986 catalogue by Marcel Marnat Henry Purcell identified with a Z number per the catalogue by Franklin B Zimmerman Antonio Vivaldi identified with a RV number per the Ryom Verzeichnis catalogue by Peter Ryom Gustav Holst identified with an H catalogue number per A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst s Music by Imogen Holst See also EditWoOReferences Edit Lewis and Short A Latin Dictionary s v opus Oxford English Dictionary s v opus Retrieved from http www oed com view Entry 132110 Oxford English Dictionary s v opera n 1 opera n 2 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Opus number amp oldid 1132489125, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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