Hey classical fans, I'm looking to get into classical on a more serious level, but before I do anything I need to know: How do you guys tag your classical music? Do you list the composer as the artist or the performer? The way classical music is organised is so completely removed from popular music that I have no idea how to integrate it into my music library.

Most of my classical music is from ripped cds, so whatever the cd does is what I do, which means it's usually the performer listed as the artist. Kinda fucks my last.fm, but whatever.

Retagging takes about 10 seconds though.

I know but if I change them then I'd have to fish out my cd cases every time I want to know who the performer is, and I don't have most of them here with me at school.

But you could tag the performer in the album name, for instance.

i would suggest that, since you're new to the idiom, to tag them according to the composer. once you get a feel for the different forms, styles and personalities of these composers and their periods, then you could start listening to various versions of their pieces and comparing the nuances of interpretations, and perhaps them you could start tagging them according to the performer.

I too would tag them by composer, because I mentally identify pieces that way more than by performer, that is, the performer is secondary in importance to me, and usually don't collect more than one performance of the same piece.

I agree with this to an extent. Plus there are ways to deal with this in Itunes or whatever program you use (such as tagging the performer as the album artist).

Hmm, I'm mostly worried about screwing my last.fm with heaps of scattered plays that could be consolidated into one artist.

If that's your main worry, then just tag the composer as the artist, and put the performer in the album name, or the comments, or the album artist.

stravinsky fought the law, and the law won.... what did he do that was criminal? he "rearranged" the star-spangled banner (using such offensive sounds as seventh chords)

Interesting. I take it that the "4 15 40" that's on what's around his neck is the day he was arrested. It goes to show how times changed between 1940 and 1969 (Hendrix at Woodstock). Was he convicted of anything, or released shortly after the arrest?

only fined $100 (which would be about a couple thousand dollars today), as far as i know

well, during times of war, patriotism tends to rise and individual freedoms tend to be constricted... i'm guessing in the 30s and 50s it would have been less likely to happen

i may have mentioned phillip schroeder a couple of times before... i've uploaded a track from one his albums (move in the changing light)... it's called "this we have"... hope you enjoy it
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JOGGI99I
or
http://www.mediafire.com/?grqc3zm1h33srzg

Been on a Bach/Mozart/Haydn tear lately. Fuck I love Haydn. I used to love when my music teacher would play P.D.Q. Bach for a laugh, but honestly, Haydn's funnier and he laid in his humor while, y'know, pretty much pioneered the Classical movement and forms. And obviously Mozart and Bach are kings.

I've mainly been sticking to the religious side though to prepare for Tree of Life Friday. Except for Don Giovanni. That's just great any time.