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Why are some Beethoven works given names like WoO 40 or Hess 238?
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Why is it called WoO 40 or Hess 238?
These are names of Beethoven's symphonies.
They have peculiar names.
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up vote
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Why is it called WoO 40 or Hess 238?
These are names of Beethoven's symphonies.
They have peculiar names.
history beethoven
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
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New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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up vote
3
down vote
favorite
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
Why is it called WoO 40 or Hess 238?
These are names of Beethoven's symphonies.
They have peculiar names.
history beethoven
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Why is it called WoO 40 or Hess 238?
These are names of Beethoven's symphonies.
They have peculiar names.
history beethoven
history beethoven
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
edited 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
34.4k675145
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
asked 2 hours ago
Jossie Calderon
1161
1161
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
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Compositions are commonly referred to by what we call opus numbers. A famous sonata by Beethoven is his Opus 53, and—because "opus" is Latin for "work"—this is an identifier that tells us that it is his 53rd work (more or less).
But there are a couple problems with this system:
- Sometimes, composers don't give a composition an opus number. For this reason, Beethoven scholars sometimes use WoO numbers. "WoO" is short for "Werke ohne Opuszahl," which itself is German for "works without opus number." As such, the WoO system helps categorize and identify works for which we don't have an opus number.
- In other instances, opus numbers don't show a clear chronology. Typically, opus numbers are given in ascending order when they are written; a composer's first work is Op. 1, their next work is Op. 2, etc. But sometimes opus numbers are given in a different order, and so Op. 9 wasn't always written before Op. 10. Moreover, sometimes sketch fragments or unfinished pieces that did not receive opus numbers are important relics for following a composer's development (and therefore need to be catalogued). In cases like this, we devise other systems to categorize a composer's output. In Beethoven's case, Willy Hess published a catalogue in 1957 of Beethoven's work that includes sketches and unfinished works; Hess 238 is thus a listing within this Hess catalogue. (Perhaps surprisingly, Hess's catalogue isn't the only one for Beethoven's works!)
It's worth mentioning that other composers have similar systems: see the Köchel catalogue for Mozart's works, the Deutsch catalogue for Schubert, or the Hoboken catalogue for Haydn (coincidentally also written in 1957). Sometimes these works are listed by genre—all piano sonatas are numbered together, all string quartets are numbered together, etc.—but other times they are listed chronologically.
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
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You got that wrong, WoO is no name, but a sort of disambiguation between the different works of a composer. While opus is used by many composers (they assigned the numbers themselves), they are not very reliable and often incomplete. Professional listings have different names, frequently taken over from the creator of that listing. Sometimes even more than one such listing exists for the same composer (Scarlatti sonatas e. g. by Longo, Kirkpatrick, since additional research suggested a revision.)
There are other kinds of disambiguation, like adding the key, see this question and its answers, and for symphonies often just the ordinal number is used. Especially for Beethoven the ordinal number (or a catching title like Pastorale) will much more likely be recognized than any listing reference.
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
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2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
4
down vote
Compositions are commonly referred to by what we call opus numbers. A famous sonata by Beethoven is his Opus 53, and—because "opus" is Latin for "work"—this is an identifier that tells us that it is his 53rd work (more or less).
But there are a couple problems with this system:
- Sometimes, composers don't give a composition an opus number. For this reason, Beethoven scholars sometimes use WoO numbers. "WoO" is short for "Werke ohne Opuszahl," which itself is German for "works without opus number." As such, the WoO system helps categorize and identify works for which we don't have an opus number.
- In other instances, opus numbers don't show a clear chronology. Typically, opus numbers are given in ascending order when they are written; a composer's first work is Op. 1, their next work is Op. 2, etc. But sometimes opus numbers are given in a different order, and so Op. 9 wasn't always written before Op. 10. Moreover, sometimes sketch fragments or unfinished pieces that did not receive opus numbers are important relics for following a composer's development (and therefore need to be catalogued). In cases like this, we devise other systems to categorize a composer's output. In Beethoven's case, Willy Hess published a catalogue in 1957 of Beethoven's work that includes sketches and unfinished works; Hess 238 is thus a listing within this Hess catalogue. (Perhaps surprisingly, Hess's catalogue isn't the only one for Beethoven's works!)
It's worth mentioning that other composers have similar systems: see the Köchel catalogue for Mozart's works, the Deutsch catalogue for Schubert, or the Hoboken catalogue for Haydn (coincidentally also written in 1957). Sometimes these works are listed by genre—all piano sonatas are numbered together, all string quartets are numbered together, etc.—but other times they are listed chronologically.
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
Compositions are commonly referred to by what we call opus numbers. A famous sonata by Beethoven is his Opus 53, and—because "opus" is Latin for "work"—this is an identifier that tells us that it is his 53rd work (more or less).
But there are a couple problems with this system:
- Sometimes, composers don't give a composition an opus number. For this reason, Beethoven scholars sometimes use WoO numbers. "WoO" is short for "Werke ohne Opuszahl," which itself is German for "works without opus number." As such, the WoO system helps categorize and identify works for which we don't have an opus number.
- In other instances, opus numbers don't show a clear chronology. Typically, opus numbers are given in ascending order when they are written; a composer's first work is Op. 1, their next work is Op. 2, etc. But sometimes opus numbers are given in a different order, and so Op. 9 wasn't always written before Op. 10. Moreover, sometimes sketch fragments or unfinished pieces that did not receive opus numbers are important relics for following a composer's development (and therefore need to be catalogued). In cases like this, we devise other systems to categorize a composer's output. In Beethoven's case, Willy Hess published a catalogue in 1957 of Beethoven's work that includes sketches and unfinished works; Hess 238 is thus a listing within this Hess catalogue. (Perhaps surprisingly, Hess's catalogue isn't the only one for Beethoven's works!)
It's worth mentioning that other composers have similar systems: see the Köchel catalogue for Mozart's works, the Deutsch catalogue for Schubert, or the Hoboken catalogue for Haydn (coincidentally also written in 1957). Sometimes these works are listed by genre—all piano sonatas are numbered together, all string quartets are numbered together, etc.—but other times they are listed chronologically.
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
Compositions are commonly referred to by what we call opus numbers. A famous sonata by Beethoven is his Opus 53, and—because "opus" is Latin for "work"—this is an identifier that tells us that it is his 53rd work (more or less).
But there are a couple problems with this system:
- Sometimes, composers don't give a composition an opus number. For this reason, Beethoven scholars sometimes use WoO numbers. "WoO" is short for "Werke ohne Opuszahl," which itself is German for "works without opus number." As such, the WoO system helps categorize and identify works for which we don't have an opus number.
- In other instances, opus numbers don't show a clear chronology. Typically, opus numbers are given in ascending order when they are written; a composer's first work is Op. 1, their next work is Op. 2, etc. But sometimes opus numbers are given in a different order, and so Op. 9 wasn't always written before Op. 10. Moreover, sometimes sketch fragments or unfinished pieces that did not receive opus numbers are important relics for following a composer's development (and therefore need to be catalogued). In cases like this, we devise other systems to categorize a composer's output. In Beethoven's case, Willy Hess published a catalogue in 1957 of Beethoven's work that includes sketches and unfinished works; Hess 238 is thus a listing within this Hess catalogue. (Perhaps surprisingly, Hess's catalogue isn't the only one for Beethoven's works!)
It's worth mentioning that other composers have similar systems: see the Köchel catalogue for Mozart's works, the Deutsch catalogue for Schubert, or the Hoboken catalogue for Haydn (coincidentally also written in 1957). Sometimes these works are listed by genre—all piano sonatas are numbered together, all string quartets are numbered together, etc.—but other times they are listed chronologically.
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
Compositions are commonly referred to by what we call opus numbers. A famous sonata by Beethoven is his Opus 53, and—because "opus" is Latin for "work"—this is an identifier that tells us that it is his 53rd work (more or less).
But there are a couple problems with this system:
- Sometimes, composers don't give a composition an opus number. For this reason, Beethoven scholars sometimes use WoO numbers. "WoO" is short for "Werke ohne Opuszahl," which itself is German for "works without opus number." As such, the WoO system helps categorize and identify works for which we don't have an opus number.
- In other instances, opus numbers don't show a clear chronology. Typically, opus numbers are given in ascending order when they are written; a composer's first work is Op. 1, their next work is Op. 2, etc. But sometimes opus numbers are given in a different order, and so Op. 9 wasn't always written before Op. 10. Moreover, sometimes sketch fragments or unfinished pieces that did not receive opus numbers are important relics for following a composer's development (and therefore need to be catalogued). In cases like this, we devise other systems to categorize a composer's output. In Beethoven's case, Willy Hess published a catalogue in 1957 of Beethoven's work that includes sketches and unfinished works; Hess 238 is thus a listing within this Hess catalogue. (Perhaps surprisingly, Hess's catalogue isn't the only one for Beethoven's works!)
It's worth mentioning that other composers have similar systems: see the Köchel catalogue for Mozart's works, the Deutsch catalogue for Schubert, or the Hoboken catalogue for Haydn (coincidentally also written in 1957). Sometimes these works are listed by genre—all piano sonatas are numbered together, all string quartets are numbered together, etc.—but other times they are listed chronologically.
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
edited 2 hours ago
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
answered 2 hours ago
Richard
34.4k675145
34.4k675145
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up vote
0
down vote
You got that wrong, WoO is no name, but a sort of disambiguation between the different works of a composer. While opus is used by many composers (they assigned the numbers themselves), they are not very reliable and often incomplete. Professional listings have different names, frequently taken over from the creator of that listing. Sometimes even more than one such listing exists for the same composer (Scarlatti sonatas e. g. by Longo, Kirkpatrick, since additional research suggested a revision.)
There are other kinds of disambiguation, like adding the key, see this question and its answers, and for symphonies often just the ordinal number is used. Especially for Beethoven the ordinal number (or a catching title like Pastorale) will much more likely be recognized than any listing reference.
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
You got that wrong, WoO is no name, but a sort of disambiguation between the different works of a composer. While opus is used by many composers (they assigned the numbers themselves), they are not very reliable and often incomplete. Professional listings have different names, frequently taken over from the creator of that listing. Sometimes even more than one such listing exists for the same composer (Scarlatti sonatas e. g. by Longo, Kirkpatrick, since additional research suggested a revision.)
There are other kinds of disambiguation, like adding the key, see this question and its answers, and for symphonies often just the ordinal number is used. Especially for Beethoven the ordinal number (or a catching title like Pastorale) will much more likely be recognized than any listing reference.
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
You got that wrong, WoO is no name, but a sort of disambiguation between the different works of a composer. While opus is used by many composers (they assigned the numbers themselves), they are not very reliable and often incomplete. Professional listings have different names, frequently taken over from the creator of that listing. Sometimes even more than one such listing exists for the same composer (Scarlatti sonatas e. g. by Longo, Kirkpatrick, since additional research suggested a revision.)
There are other kinds of disambiguation, like adding the key, see this question and its answers, and for symphonies often just the ordinal number is used. Especially for Beethoven the ordinal number (or a catching title like Pastorale) will much more likely be recognized than any listing reference.
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
You got that wrong, WoO is no name, but a sort of disambiguation between the different works of a composer. While opus is used by many composers (they assigned the numbers themselves), they are not very reliable and often incomplete. Professional listings have different names, frequently taken over from the creator of that listing. Sometimes even more than one such listing exists for the same composer (Scarlatti sonatas e. g. by Longo, Kirkpatrick, since additional research suggested a revision.)
There are other kinds of disambiguation, like adding the key, see this question and its answers, and for symphonies often just the ordinal number is used. Especially for Beethoven the ordinal number (or a catching title like Pastorale) will much more likely be recognized than any listing reference.
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
edited 20 mins ago
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
answered 34 mins ago
guidot
5,4161032
5,4161032
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Jossie Calderon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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