Tagging classical music

[DavidHB]

Leaving aside Simon's suggestion that the quoted text in Alpina_Lux's long posts be replaced with links (a suggestion with which I very much agree), there are points to be made about the material itself, which seems to me to sit uncomfortably with much of what has said elsewhere in this thread.

Firstly, while I cannot claim to have absorbed completely all the material in these very long posts, its very length and obvious complexity creates the danger that beginners will be put off the whole tagging process. I have already argued that we should not allow tagging schemes to become over complex, or routinely enter data that will not be used either in the browsing process or displayed by the control point. Those points seem relevant here.

Second, the use of the word 'Zen' in the titles of the quoted material suggests that there is some sort of 'perfect' or ultimate tagging scheme. Along with others who have posted here, I just do not believe that this is the case. I hope that much of the value of this hobby, for others as it has been for me, lies in finding new ways of exploring one's music collection; that implies that tagging schemes may evolve over time, and there are many enjoyable paths one can follow. Maybe aiming from the outset for a complex, quasi-academic 'Zen' scheme suits some people; if so, well and good. But others who have posted here have made it clear that this is not the only way to go.

Thirdly, what we have come to call (for want of a better term) 'classical' music resolutely defies the kind of tightly drawn system of classification outlined in the quoted material, which is based (perhaps unsurprisingly, given its origins) on the received canon of German and German-influenced music from, say, 1770 to 1940. For different reasons, many other strands of the classical repertoire (think Buxtehude, Chopin or Villa-Lobos) fit uncomfortably or not at all into that scheme. When it comes to tagging schemes, systems of categorisation and sub-categorisation are perhaps better avoided, especially by new users of networked music systems.

Finally, the determined (and, dare one say, sniffily arrogant) rejection in the quoted material of the file system as a means of organising and accessing music files fails to take account of certain realities. The file system is always there; it is all that is available when metadata is not present. The file system has to be used to access files for metadata editing. And file and folder names are, in themselves, another form of metadata, albeit one that is somewhat differently entered and accessed from 'normal' metadata. Personally, I think that folder view is a very good way for beginners to access their music libraries, especially when folders are organised in a way with which the user is already familiar. If my own experience is anything to go by, users will tend to move away from folder view to more index-based browsing as more of their files are tagged. But we should not regard the file system and tagging/indexing as substitutes for each other; they are, of necessity, complementary.

David