Wikipedia:Naming conventions (pieces of music)

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This page is a naming conventions guideline for Wikipedia, reflecting how authors of this encyclopedia address certain issues. This guideline is intended to help you improve Wikipedia content. Feel free to update this page as needed, but please use the discussion page to propose major changes.

Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions

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.

• 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.
• 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 (Bartok), Concerto for Orchestra (Lutoslawski); 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. Normally, this will mean adding a cardinal number but there are other possibilities, for example:
  • Cardinal number: Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius), Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), Symphony No. 1 (Mahler) - note that a period follows the "No".
  • Opus number: String Quartet, Opus 76, No. 5 (Haydn)
  • Key: Prelude in C sharp minor (Rachmaninov)
  • Catalogue number: Piano Sonata, D. 958 (Schubert) (see Opus number for an indication of which composers these might apply to) - note that a period follows the abbreviation. 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.

However you title an article, consider making redirects to it 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).

In an article's text, major pieces should be in italics, while smaller pieces and individual movements from major works should be in quotes - "Mars" is a movement from Gustav Holst's The Planets (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style for more).