My apologies for my stunning ignorance but could someone fill me in on how symphonies (and concertos and toccatas, etc etc etc) get their names? For example:
–Did Beethoven say to himself “Hmm, this is the fifth big thing I’ve written so I’ll call it my Fifth Symphony”?
–What’s an opus and why does it have a number?
–What does it mean if a piece of music has a key? Does it mean Toccata and Fugue in D Minor uses no other chord through the entire piece? Would Bach have gotten dragged in front of the Musical Review Panel if he used another key in the middle of the piece?
–All these names seem pretty sterile. Do the composers really sit down and say “I’ve just created a thing called Symphony No 37 in G minor opus 12?” Why not just the classical equivalent of “Stairway to Heaven.”
Well, in the case of Beethoven, the 5th Symphony was just that, the 5th symphony he wrote. An opus is just a work, and, a lot of times, musical pieces are referred to by those numbers. So, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is also called "Opus 125. That means that it was the 125th piece he had written.
And symphonies can have names…Beethoven’s 3rd was the “Eroica”, his 5th was the “Schicksal”, his 6th was the “Pastorale”, and 9th was the “Choral”.
A symphony is a major work; you know when you’ve completed one. Generally, when it’s done, the composer names it “Symphony #x in {key}.” He may give it a nickname (I believe Beethoven chose “Eroica”) , or it may be given by others (Schubert didn’t nickname his symphony “Unfinished”).
“Opus” is Latin for “Penguin” . . . un, I mean “work.” Every completed work by a composer is given an Opus number, sometimes by the composer; other times by a later cataloguer (if the latter, it is usually has a different name: Mozart’s works have a Kochel number, named for the person who listed his work. Instead of “Opus 50,” it’s “Kochel Number 50” or “K. 50”).
The purpose is to keep works straight. A composer over a career might have several works that could be confused: There might be two piano concertos in C Major, for instance; the opus number helps to differentiate, and also helps to mark a career. Opus 20, for instance, is usually earlier in the composer’s career than Opus 250.
I’m not sure about the key, but it’s usually the key that the work starts out with and ends with. While I suppose keys can be switched, the composer usually sticks with one (though there may be elements of different keys at different points0>
The names are just to describe the work. They are clear, as far as they go: This is my Fifth Symphony and it’s in C minor. The composer is creating music, not words, so he probably doesn’t care to come up with a name, especially since there are no lyrics.
Simply, opera (pl. of opus) are numbered in order of publication, not necessarily in order of writing. There may be several pieces in one opus. For example, lots of beginner pianists learn some sonatinas by Clementi. In his 36th publication, there were (I think) six actual separate pieces, all sonatinas (again, I think.) My little sister’s favorite was Op. 36, No. 2: Sonatina* in G**. This is the second sonatina in his 36th published opus. He may have actually written this sonatina before something published in an earlier opus (say Op. 22), but it was published later.
This can actually get a bit complicated, as some works are published posthumously, and some composers may have assigned opus numbers to their works when they started writing them rather than when they were published.
I’m not sure when it became common to actually name pieces, but I guess it just simply wasn’t done too often back in the day. Some more popular pieces were given names, however I’m not sure if this was by the composer or by fans.
*Wikipedia “Sonata”
*This sonatina is written in the key of G Major. Certain parts of it are not in G Major, but most of it is. The “key signature” has one sharp (F). Wikipedia “key”
Opus numbers used to be assigned by the publisher, so they reflected the order in which the pieces were published, not written. Today, it’s more common for the composer to assign an opus number, in chronological order.
Keys: Virtually all music is in a particular key, but keys can change within a piece. This only tells us how many sharps or flats are in the scale, not the specific chords used. Something that is written in the key of C major (or A minor) has no sharps or flats, but there are many possible chords that can be played in that key.
In Beethoven’s time, a symphony was a composition for orchestra with a very clear structure - there was no question of ‘hmmm, is this a symphony?’ In the 20th century, boundaries became more vague, and composers might choose to name something a symphony even though it doesn’t tick all the boxes (Shostakovich’s 14th, for instance, which is really a song cycle), or they might avoid using the label altogether.
Similarly, some composers would choose to give some works opus numbers, essentially saying ‘I think this is a good piece that should be published and listed as something I wrote’. Of course, there’s all sorts of other pieces, both finished and unfinished, which they don’t do this with, which is why somebody later on will maybe start to put together a complete catalogue.
Interesting aside, re. numbering symphonies: Mahler was convinced that writing a ninth symphony was a cursed activity. After writing his 8th, the next was titled but not numbered. Snappily:
Das Lied von der Erde - Eine Symphonie für eine Tenor- und eine Alt- (oder Bariton-) Stimme und Orchester (nach Hans Bethges “Die chinesische Flöte”)
(An important point with regard to this thread is that he still called it a symphony, even though it’s not numbered)
He then wrote another, numbering it 9, and then died while writing his 10th. So the curse got him in the end.
One follow-up for Eroica: Beeothoven himself gave the symphony that name, but it was the second one he chose. Originally, Beethoven had named the symphony for Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he admired for his role in the French Revolution. When Beethoven was disappointed with Bonaparte turning into an autocrat himself, he re-named the symphony.