Library catalogues use Preferred Titles (also called Uniform Titles) for many musical works. They are standardized titles assigned to works which either have no title or have been published under more than one title, depending on language or format. These titles group similar items together in the catalogue.
Preferred Titles for Individual Works
Many musical works have unique or distinctive titles for individual works. These may be in the language of the original manuscript.
Once you have identified a preferred title to a distinctive work, you can then search these titles to discover more in an online catalogue.
For example, the composer Igor Stravinsky's work known in English as "The Firebird", has also been published in French as "L'oiseau de feu" and in German as "Feuervogel". The preferred title for this particular work in the online catalogue is: "Zhar-ptitsa", its original Russian title (romanized).
The full display of the bibliographic record for the full score of this work in the online catalogue looks like this:
Author Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971.
Preferred Title Zhar-ptitsa
Title The firebird : in full score (original 1910 version) / Igor Stravinsky.
You may have found a few records by searching for "Firebird", but searching again using the preferred title "Zhar-ptitsa", will result in a complete list of all formats and varying titles to this particular work that the library owns.
Preferred titles are also used to distinguish works in the same genre or form from other similar-titled works by the same composer and may incorporate vocal and/or instrumental medium, date of composition, thematic catalogue number, and key.
For example, as Mozart composed many symphonies, his Symphony in G minor, thematic catalogue number K. 550, appears in the catalogue like this:
Author Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791.
Preferred Title Symphonies, K. 550, G minor
Title Symphonie G moll = G minor = Sol mineur, K. V. 550 / W.A. Mozart.
Search Tip: Note in the example above the space between the K. and 550 in the preferred title. You must always put a space before the number when searching using thematic catalogue numbers, opus or other numbered parts of a composer's work, in order to find works in our catalogue.
If a composer has only written one work in a specific genre, the preferred title is singular. For example, Gabriel Fauré only composed one elegy, so the preferred title appears like this in the online catalogue:
Author Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924.
Preferred Title Elegy, violoncello, piano, op. 24
Title Elégie, opus 24, for cello and piano / Fauré ; [edited by] Leonard Rose.
If you are unsure about using plural or singular for a particular type of composition, use the truncation symbol * after your search term. For example, the search term: Symphon* will retrieve Symphonies and Symphony.
Some preferred titles may be exactly the same for different composers, so you may need to combine your search with the composer's name. Example: combine keywords "Symphonies no. 1" AND "Beethoven".
Collective Preferred Titles
Some works may be by anonymous composers, or by many composers, so a preferred title is used to collocate these works as well. Some examples: Fitzwilliam virginal book ; Chaconne von Vitali
The last example above was formerly attributed to Tomasso Vitali, but is now considered to be the work of another unknown composer, so the preferred title appears as above (taken from the original manuscript title-page).