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This is a guide to formatting classical composers, performers and works in a consistent way that serves both expert and non-specialist audiences. It should be applied across the Â鶹Éç, including to programme descriptions and music services such as Now Playing, Music Played and Recent Tracks.

Composers

Use the format First name Surname, including any additional names by convention eg Johann Sebastian Bach.

Do not use Surname, First name.

Include diacritics eg Arvo Pärt.

Performers

Enter performer names without reference to their role. If the role is included in the performer field (eg baritone), it is unlikely to match the existing database record and surface the associated image.

Similarly, omit titles such as Sir or Dame.

Do not abbreviate the names of ensembles eg Â鶹Éç National Orchestra of Wales not Â鶹Éç NOW.

Include diacritics eg Michael Bublé.

Works

Titles

If the piece has a single title, like a book, use title case:

The Rite of Spring

The Enchanted Lake

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

If the title is a standard musical form (Concerto, Quartet, Sonata, Symphony, Trio etc), the form comes first followed by the No number (if there is one), the key and the opus or catalogue number:

Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op 67

Symphony No 40 in G minor, K550

Some pieces, such as µþ±ð±ð³Ù³ó´Ç±¹±ð²Ô’s Moonlight sonata, also have a name or nickname. This nickname should be placed in single inverted commas at the end of a title, preceded by a comma:

Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op 27 No 2, ‘Moonlight’

After the title, it is standard to cite any parent work in brackets:

Concerto in E, RV269, ‘Spring’ (The Four Seasons)

Overtures

Concert overtures may dispense with the word overture or simply include it as part of the title, depending on convention:

Le corsaire

Helios Overture

1812 Overture

µþ±ð±ð³Ù³ó´Ç±¹±ð²Ô’s Leonore Overtures Nos 1–3 fall into this category, having been withdrawn from their original operatic context.

Operatic overtures are mentioned below in the section on excerpts.

Cantatas, Motets and Oratorios

When the first line of the sung text forms part of the piece’s title, it should appear in single inverted commas:

Bach: Cantata No 215, ‘Preise dein Glucke, gesegnetes Sachsen’

This helps to identify Bach cantatas, as he wrote so many.

When the form of a cantata, motet or oratorio is nonessential, omit the text:

Tallis: Spem in alium (a motet)

Similarly, Handel's Theodora and Mendelssohn's Elijah (both oratorios).

Masses

When it begins a title, the Latin word Missa is by convention always run together with the name of the mass, without punctuation: 

Missa Alma redemptoris mater

The word following Missa is capitalised unless Missa is already part of the title:

Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War)

Instrumentation

In many cases, instrumentation does not feature in a title (eg The Rite of Spring) or is implicit (a piece called Symphony is usually for orchestra).

In others, instrumentation is part of a title (eg Piano Concerto) or is given after it (eg Duo for violins).

The instrumentation should come at the beginning of the title where possible:

Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58

String Quartet No 2

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64

At times, it makes more sense to list instrumentation afterwards:

Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone

Concerto for Double String Orchestra

(capitals are used if instrumentation is part of the title)

Where the instrumentation is listed after the form of the piece, the key precedes the instrumentation. This is because the key describes the work not the instrument:

Sonata in A minor for two harpsichords

Where continuo is listed in the instrumentation for Baroque music, call it simply continuo. Avoid basso continuo and do not abbreviate to bc.

Key Signatures

Include key signatures where appropriate for music from the 19th century and earlier. With tonal music, the key signature is an important identifier, often helping to differentiate pieces when a composer wrote many examples of the same form.

The key signature goes after the piece title and No number, and before instrumentation and opus or catalogue numbers. Only the letter of the key is capitalised: minor, sharp and flat are lower case.

There are no hyphens in key signatures that follow the piece title:

Piano Concerto in F sharp minor

Mass in B minor

Never use the letter b for the flat symbol. Always write flat.

Excerpts

When an excerpt is a movement, an operatic overture or a suite, list the parent work first, on the grounds that the identity of the parent work is essential in making sense of generic names such as 3rd mvt, Overture, Funeral March, Suite etc.

The details of the excerpt itself follow in brackets:

Dido and Aeneas (Act 1, Sc 2)

Tannhauser (Overture)

Romeo and Juliet (Suite No 1)

Symphony No 6 in B minor, ‘Pathetique’ (3rd mvt)

Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor (3rd mvt, ‘Funeral March’)

Refer to movements as shown in the last two examples and not by the tempo marking. Words like Allegro are imprecise. In the case of µþ±ð±ð³Ù³ó´Ç±¹±ð²Ô’s Symphony No 5, both the third and fourth movements are marked Allegro.

When the excerpt has a unique name (like an operatic aria), follow it with the parent work in brackets:

Nessun dorma! (Tosca)

Polovtsian Dances (Prince Igor)

Songs from a collection fall into this style:

Auch kleine Dinge (Italian Songbook)

Likewise, a recitative from a Bach cantata:

Wer aber hort, da sich der grosste Haufen (Cantata No 76, 'Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes')

If we are playing only a subsection of a piece – part of a movement, for example – use a colon to mark off the fragment:

Concerto in B flat, Op 9 No 8 (1st mvt: excerpt)

This situation with subsections frequently arises with operatic excerpts.

Norma (Act 1, Sc 1: Casta diva... Ah! bello a me) means that only a part of Act 1, Scene 1 of Bellini's opera is being performed, specifically from the aria Casta diva up to the end of the aria Ah! bello a me.

Language

Present titles in English if there is an accepted English version that is at least as well known as the original, including oratorios and operas sung in another language. Otherwise, do not translate the original.

Richard Strauss:

Four Last Songs (not Vier Letzte Lieder)

Metamorphosen (not translated)

Igor Stravinsky:

The Firebird

Les noces (not translated)

Richard Wagner:

The Flying Dutchman

Gotterdammerung (not translated)

The titles of German lieder and other non-English vocal music will usually only be viable in the original.

Capitalisation

If the piece title is in English, capitalise all words except articles, prepositions and conjunctions:

War Requiem

The Rite of Spring

A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

This is unless the piece is known by its first lines (hymn titles, operatic arias), in which case use sentence case:

In the bleak midwinter

Tell me the truth about love

Other languages follow other rules. German capitalises all nouns, whilst French capitalises only proper nouns (eg La Boheme).

Musical abbreviations such as arr, mvt, No, Op, rev and transcr are not followed by a dot and are capped or lower case as shown here.

Punctuation

Use a comma to indicate that two pieces of equivalent information are in parentheses.

Symphonie fantastique (2nd mvt, 'Un bal') means that we are playing the whole of the second movement which is also called Un bal.

Use a colon to mark off a subsection. If we are playing only a fragment of the movement, we should write Symphonie fantastique (2nd mvt: excerpt) or even (2nd mvt, ‘Un bal’: excerpt).

Use single inverted commas when following a piece’s main title with its nickname (String Quartet No 1, ‘From My Life’) or with the first line of the lyrics (Cantata No 82, ‘Ich habe genug’), but drop the inverted commas when a lyric can stand alone as the title of an excerpt: Dove Sono (The Magic Flute).

Diacritics

As a general rule, accented characters in French, German, Italian and Spanish should be retained. Other accents can be used where necessary for pronunciation or disambiguation eg Arvo Pärt, Michael Bublé.