Christopher Aillon replies to Dave Smey:
Clearly you aren't a classical music fan. Many composers have such a
wide array of material that "I'm in the mood for some Bach" might as
well be "I'm in the mood to listen to music." Which Bach? C.P.E
perhaps. Maybe C.F, or J.C. Seriously, classical *connoisseurs* (not
"fans" or those who listen to it in passing like most people) know
precisely what they want to listen to. There aren't many of them
though. It's a shame that classical music has degraded to such in the
public's eyes.
All Bach recordings are considered
somewhat interchangeable, or belonging to the same class.
I think you have just disqualified yourself as having a real opinion for
classical music.
Without speaking to the correctness or accuracy of your arguments, I'd just
point out that you're not likely to advance your cause very far with attacks
like these, especially when you direct them at someone who is proposing a
change that brings the MB database more towards your preference for
performer-emphasis (to make this perfectly clear, you are attacking your ally).
Dave has proposed that we change the release artist credits for recital albums
to reflect a primary performer, rather than the composer. From your arguments,
I think you would agree with this. While you may prefer to go even further and
make this change for all classical albums, that won't be happening any time
real soon. Others have argued for this (see the ClassicalStyleGuideDiscussion
page on the wiki, aka CSGD), but have never achieved consensus for it. I will
note that this will probably happen *eventually* but only after we have
implemented the NextGenerationSchema split of ReleaseArtist and CreditedArtist.
I think that it is very likely that we could achieve near-term consensus on
this change for recital albums that would otherwise be Various Artists (i.e.
multiple composers). (For the record, I support this change). There is even a
chance that there might be consensus for recital albums that highlight
performers but only feature the work of one composer, although it will be
tricky to get wording that everybody is happy with, and that doesn't leave
things so ambiguous that we end up with voting or edit wars. But posts like
yours make it *less* likely that this will happen.
To return to substantive discussion on the details and merits of the proposal,
I would take Dave's wording:
Recitals by a particular artist: In cases
where a release contains works from multiple composers but all works are
attributable to a single group or performer, that group or performer may
be designated the ReleaseArtist, with each TrackArtist assigned to the
appropriate composer."
and modify it to also include recitals that have only works by a single
composer but avoid some of the ambiguity in Frederic's original proposals:
Recitals by a single performer: In cases where a release contains only work(s)
performed primarily by a single group or individual, credited prominently on
the release, that artist may be designated the ReleaseArtist if any one of the
following conditions is met:
* The works are composed by different artists, and the album would otherwise be
attributed to VariousArtists
* The tracks on the release, while all composed by one artist, are parts of multiple works, several
of which are not present in their complete form or are drawn from different groups
("selections" or "highlights")
* The work(s) have all been arranged, remixed, or otherwise substantially
modified by the primary performer
In the first case, the album should be entered as a VA release with the
composers as the track artists (unless the third case applies).
In the second case, the album should be entered as a VA release with the
composer as the track artist for each of the tracks (unless the third case
applies).
In the third case, the album should be entered as a non-VA release, and the composer(s)
should be attributed to the album (if only one composer) or the tracks (if more than one
composer) only by "composed by" AdvancedRelationships
The last case is specifically intended to cover releases like "Switched-on
Bach" (http://musicbrainz.org/album/0ccc0b2a-6e9f-467d-8bb5-ff0d329f52fb.html) and
other performances of classical music by non-classical performers, although I expect that
in many cases, as in that one, the second case would cover them as well.
@alex
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