About this unique online tool

The online edition of Daniels’ Orchestral Music, which is updated monthly, includes over 20,100 entries.

Instrumentation formula. The formulaic arrangement of wind instruments, familiar to all in the field, is used here: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon — horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba. Amplifications, if any, are spelled out in brackets. A dot (.) separates one player from another; a slash (/) indicates doubling. Thus, the following example:

3[1.2.3/pic] 2[1.Eh] 3[1.2.3/Ebcl/bcl] 3[1.2/cbn.cbn]

…should be understood as:

3 flutists, the 3rd player doubling on piccolo
2 oboists, the 2nd playing English horn throughout
3 clarinetists, the 3rd doubling also on E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet
3 bassoonists, the 2nd doubling on contrabassoon, and the 3rd playing contra throughout

Unfortunately, in the first three editions of Orchestral Music, some 4500 works were listed using a cruder scheme involving the symbols * , + , and = . These showed that certain auxiliary woodwinds were present, but not how many of them, nor in which part. Over the years I have attempted to find the full doubling information for each of these older entries, but almost 400 still are in this inconclusive state. For the latter I have had to resort to such expressions as: “3[incl pic]”, meaning that one or more of the three flutists must play, or double on, piccolo.

In the notes to individual works, for “2fl” read “2 flutes.” For “fl2,” read “flute 2” (i.e. 2nd flute).

Composers. For composers’ names and dates, my main source has been Grove Music Online, supplemented as needed. Because Russia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, standard in the West, until 1918, Grove gives birth and/or death dates in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars for many late 19th- and early 20th-century Russian composers. In such cases it is the Julian date (about 10 days earlier than the Gregorian) that comes first.

You will find “see-references” from divergent spellings of a composer’s surname.
For composers whose output is prolific or in some way confusing, thematic index numbers are employed. The most well-established of these, of course, are the K-numbers for Mozart, familiar to all musicians. In all such cases, the source of these numbers is given at the beginning of that composer’s entries.

Titles. For generic titles (Symphony, Concerto, etc.) I have adapted the uniform title system of American libraries. Recognizing that this book is being used all over the world, I have generally rendered distinctive titles (i.e., non-generic) in their original form, if it is in one of the languages with which most musicians have a passing acquaintance (English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Latin). Titles in other languages are generally given first in English, with the original title following in parentheses, transliterated if necessary; however, this principle is not followed slavishly, if common sense dictates otherwise (e.g., Stravinsky’s Les noces).

You may search for any titles, title translations or nicknames in this website, even if you don’t know the composer.

Many, though not all, titles are followed by the dates of composition and/or revision in angle-brackets; e.g., <1979; rev 1986>.

Durations. Durations will of course vary from one performance to the next, even under the same conductor. The durations in this website should be considered reasonable approximations only. Quite aside from tempo variances and cuts, some performers may choose not to honor certain repeats as indicated, which will cause further divergence.

Publishers. Sources of scores and parts appear in short form across the bottom of each entry, in a grey bar. Click on the abbreviated name of any publisher for full contact information, and in many cases background information and commentary.

David Daniels