How do you organize your classical records ?

[rockitman]

By Composer or by conductor ? I can't decide...leaning by conductor. Thoughts ?

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I suppose it would depend in part on how large one's collection is. Mine is very small at around 50, so I organize by composer. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.....it's an easy search for a small collection.

 

[puroagave]

Label, composer, conductor/orch in that order. I group all my LPs in lots by label i.e. emi, London, decca, Merc, RCA, etc and a sub group of orig pressings for each label and then alphabetical by composer. its how my brain works and is much easier to locate specific recordings.

 

[Shaffer]

Composer, but I have so little Classical that it doesn't really make a difference.

 

[Keith_W]

Arranged by Composer, then by work type (e.g. BEETHOVEN - Piano, BEETHOVEN - Symphonies, BEETHOVEN - Other), then by Opus - earliest works first.

There are of course CD's that don't fit this neat classification - at the end of the collection are a series of CD's arranged by artists, e.g. PIANO, SYMPHONIC WORKS, VOCAL, ANCIENT MUSIC, etc.

 

[JackD201]

Same as Rob

 

[rockitman]

Label, composer, conductor/orch in that order. I group all my LPs in lots by label i.e. emi, London, decca, Merc, RCA, etc and a sub group of orig pressings for each label and then alphabetical by composer. its how my brain works and is much easier to locate specific recordings.

That sounds like a good logical approach.

 

[JackD201]

It is You can zero in on the section more easily just looking at the spines. Even easier for Jazz.

 

[astrotoy]

With about 15,000 classical records, I organize the major labels by catalogue number (Decca, EMI, RCA, Mercury, Lyrita, BIS, RefRec, Harmonia Mundi and several specialty "audiophile labels") and then everything else by composer and type of work, with a group at the end which is for various collections. Also monos are organized separately, since I play them with a mono only cartridge. One exception is Opera which is organized separately by Composer. I do need to look up on my data base where most of my records are.

Larry

 

[JackD201]

You are my new idol Larry!

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

How do you stay awake with that many Classical records?

 

[dcc]

With about 3000 classical records (half LP's and half CD/SACD's), I just follow the way my father used to: sorting by date of birth of the composer and then by genre: solo, chamber, concertos, symphonic, vocal, operas. It may seem odd but there is a good advantage: if I am in the mood for early baroque, I know where I need to look for. If I want to listen to the Bach´s cello suites, I have got them all ligned up side by side. Did you know that Scarlatti, Handel and Bach were born the same year?

 

[Ronm1]

Did you know that Scarlatti, Handel and Bach were born the same year?

I did not.
I just keep Contemporary, Jazz, Classical separated and in those genres by format redbook(cd, xrcd, k2hd), SACD, DVDA.

 

[jazdoc]

Couldn't resist...

 

[astrotoy]

How do you stay awake with that many Classical records?

At 68, I can only stay awake if I have my nap in the afternoon. Larry

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

At 68, I can only stay awake if I have my nap in the afternoon. Larry

LOL! I'm only 60 and my naps are precious! I'm with ya!

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

LOL! I'm only 60 and my naps are precious! I'm with ya!

Damn...I just said "I'm only 60". I don't think I've ever said that before.

 

[LL21]

Arranged by Composer, then by work type (e.g. BEETHOVEN - Piano, BEETHOVEN - Symphonies, BEETHOVEN - Other), then by Opus - earliest works first.

There are of course CD's that don't fit this neat classification - at the end of the collection are a series of CD's arranged by artists, e.g. PIANO, SYMPHONIC WORKS, VOCAL, ANCIENT MUSIC, etc.

Categories:
- Classical
- Jazz
- Blues
- Rock/et al
- Hip Hop/Club
- International (Celtic Harp, Spanish Guitar, Cuban, etc)
- Soundtracks.

Within each Category, alphabetized by Artist.

Within Classical, alphabetized by Composer (Within Composer: Smallest to Largest Works: Instrument solo, trios, quartets, quintets, etc, concertos, symphonies, then masses/choral, then 'mixes' if any). If I have several version of the same works (Bach Goldberg Variations, Well Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos...I rank by my favourite to least favourite.)

However, I am starting to think maybe, just maybe by Period of Classical and then Composer: Early/Medieval, Baroque, Neoclassical...may make more sense. Not sure yet.

 

[GaryProtein]

I arrange by composer, but there are plenty of disks that have more than one composer's work on it which completely screws everything up.

How do you guys handle that?

 

[Keith_W]

I arrange by composer, but there are plenty of disks that have more than one composer's work on it which completely screws everything up.

How do you guys handle that?

I would have bought the disc for a reason. If I bought it because I wanted to listen to a piece by a composer, I file it under that composer. If I bought it because of the conductor, or soloist, then it gets filed under the conductor or soloist (separate sections in my collection for that).