29-534: Caprice bohémien , Op. 12, also known as the " Capriccio on Gypsy Themes ", is a symphonic poem for orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff from 1892 to 1894. Rachmaninoff began work on the piece in the summer of 1892, writing in August in a letter to his friend, the baritone Mikhail Slonov, that he would write the composition for piano four hands first, and orchestrate it at a later date. Rachmaninoff completed this orchestral version two years later, halfway through
58-421: A blaring E major chord. Rachmaninoff began writing the capriccio shortly after the completion of his opera Aleko , a work similarly centered around gypsy themes, and the piece contains several references to the opera. The work has been compared to Rimsky-Korsakov 's Capriccio espagnol and Tchaikovsky 's Capriccio Italien . Opus number In music , the opus number is the "work number" that
87-657: 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
116-420: A composer's juvenilia are often numbered after other works, even though they may be some of the composer's first completed works. 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
145-571: 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. From about 1800, composers usually assigned an opus number to
174-453: 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
203-553: 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. 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
232-776: A result, the plural opera of opus tends to be avoided in English. In other languages such as German, however, it remains common. 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
261-549: A small edition of the catalogue, based on the 1990 second edition. This edition, known as BWV , contained a few further updates and collation rearrangements. New additions ( Nachträge ) to BWV /BWV included: Numbers above BWV 1126 were added in the 21st century. A revised version (3rd edition in total) of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was originally announced by the Bach Archive for publication in 2020, however it
290-636: 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,
319-448: Is assigned to a musical composition , or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer 's publication of that work. 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. Opus numbers do not necessarily indicate chronological order of composition. For example, posthumous publications of
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#1732863153650348-460: The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder , the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition for the collation (e.g., BG cantata number = BWV number of the cantata): The Anhang of the BWV listed works that were not suitable for
377-586: 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. In the classical period , the Latin word opus ("work", "labour"), plural opera ,
406-964: 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
435-709: The September of 1894. Rachmaninoff dedicated the work to Pyotr Lodyzhensky, the wife of the gypsy Anna Alexandrovna Lodyzhenskaya, to whom he later dedicated his First Symphony . The piece was given its premiere in Moscow, on 22 November 1894, with Rachmaninoff himself conducting, as part of a tour with the violinist Teresina Tua . Rachmaninoff later went on to form a strong dislike for the piece. In 1908, he called it one of three of his compositions which "frightened" him, and would like to make revisions to, along with his First Piano Concerto and First Symphony, though he didn't ever revise
464-544: The best work of an artist with the term magnum opus . 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. As
493-409: The capriccio. In 1930, he described it as the only one of his works which he would "prefer to disown". The work is in the keys of E minor and E major, and is split into three sections. The first section, marked Allegro vivace , opens to the beating of the timpani , with the music developing through slow and dramatic chords voiced by the low woodwinds and mirrored by the low brass. A short interlude in
522-536: 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,
551-466: 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
580-607: The first decade of the 21st century. Provenance of standard texts and tunes, such as Lutheran hymns and their chorale melodies , Latin liturgical texts (e.g. Magnificat ) and common tunes (e.g. Folia ), are not usually indicated in this column. For an overview of such resources used by Bach, see individual composition articles, and overviews in, e.g., Chorale cantata (Bach)#Bach's chorale cantatas , List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach#Chorale harmonisations in various collections and List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach#Chorale Preludes . Appearing in
609-415: 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
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#1732863153650638-422: The high winds brings the piece to a vibrant outburst, led by the strings, in a motif echoed multiple times throughout the piece. The middle section of the piece, marked Lento lugubre , is slow and drawn-out, and features a pedal point on E minor. The work's concluding section, in contrast, has the orchestra rebuild to a loud and lively climax, and after a short and powerful respite in B minor, the composition ends in
667-580: The main catalogue, in three sections: Within each section of the Anhang the works are sorted by genre, following the same sequence of genres as the main catalogue. Schmieder published the BWV's second edition in 1990, with some modifications regarding authenticity discriminations, and more works added to the main catalogue and the Anhang . Several compositions were repositioned in the over-all structure of chapters organised by genre and Anhang sections. In 1998 Alfred Dürr and Yoshitake Kobayashi published
696-475: 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)
725-448: 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
754-441: The works of composers such as: Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ( BWV ; lit. ' Bach works catalogue ' ; German: [ˈbax ˈvɛrkə fɛrˈtsaeçnɪs] ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder . The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV ,
783-466: Was delayed and only finally published in 2022. The numbers assigned to compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and by others in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis are widely used for the unique identification of these compositions. Exceptionally BWV numbers are also indicated as Schmieder (S) numbers (e.g. S. 225 = BWV 225 ). BWV numbers 1 to 1126 appear in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis . BWV numbers above 1126 were assigned from
812-471: Was published in 1998. The catalogue groups compositions by genre. Even within a genre, compositions are not necessarily collated chronologically. For example, BWV 992 was composed many years before BWV 1 . BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions. The first edition of
841-409: Was used to identify, list, and catalogue a work of art. 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
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