History

This whole project started with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. When I was young, my parents used to listen to the very few long-playing records which they had proudly acquired and were carefully handling as precious objects. This is when I learned about grooves, tone arm, needle, scratches... but also, and above all, about composers and their music. Many works were simply called sonatas for piano, concertos for violin and orchestra, symphonies, with various opus numbers and key signatures. However, others possessed evocative titles: A Little Night Music and The Nutcracker, of course, but also Eroica, Moonlight Sonata, Jardins sous la pluie, Valse triste and... the Pastoral.

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Later, in my late teens and early twenties, I started to investigate various works to purchase my own stereophonic records and build up my collection. And I discovered that one word or two was not enough to differentiate one particular piece from others bearing a similar title. In the case of the Pastoral, I had always thought this word belonged, or should belong only, to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, in F major, opus 68. I soon found out that it was also being used as a title for different works by Torelli, Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Milhaud... to name just a few. This word was even used for Beethoven’s piano sonata No. 15, in D major, opus 28 (although that title was not given by the composer, but later by a publisher).

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Other names or titles seemed firmly attached to a particular work, i.e. Romantic was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4; Faust could only describe Gounod’s opera; and the good old Unfinished meant Schubert’s Symphony No. 8. But there too, those titles could also refer to other works. There lies my growing involvement with the titles of classical music compositions. This was helped by my family and friends who, knowing my interest in this field, would occasionally query me about particular titles.

 

All this led to an attempt to find a reference book which would list classical music works by their titles. None was to be found. Thus I decided I would try to create one, at least for my own reference, with the vague idea of publishing for the benefit of others. Therefore, over thirty years after the first thought on this project, I present What’s What in Titles of Classical Music... and beyond.

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This document is almost as much a musical reference dictionary as a multilingual dictionary of sorts. Here one can browse and find lots of interesting information, with many cross-references, covering various subjects, persons, places, events in literature, history, geography, religion, mythology, with titles and words connected with music. And aren’t language and music two powerful means of communication which help tame this human world, unfortunately often caught up with wars, greed, misuse of money, and other evils? But I am digressing...