best practice for classical music

[antonmb]

I may not be the best reference, but here's what I do.

Classical:
* Album Title: I stick as closely as possible to the original title as shown on the cover art but shorten composers to last name only.
* Album Artist: Composer's name (last name first as in "Hindemith, Paul”). Set to “Various Composers” when multiple composers on the same album
* Track artist: blank - I know many use track artist for soloist, conductor, orchestra, etc., but I prefer to leave this blank so that the artist list is less cluttered when using portable devices.
* Composer: Composer’s name, reversed.
* Soloists: Any soloists, key performers
* Conductor: Conductor
* Orchestra: All orchestras or ensembles like quartets, etc. I don't use the Ensemble field but you could do this for smaller groups.
* Chorus: Choir, Chorus - any vocal group
* Genre: all set to "Classical". Thinking of Style field for sub-genres, e.g. Baroque Chamber, Symphonic.
* Track title: show the work and the movement, delete any unnecessary repetition of album or soloists, etc.
* Year: year only, no month
* Grouping: box set names. Others use this to for “work” or “composition” - I may do this next.
* Description: I set this field with the year and month acquired the album, in the format “YYYY-MM,” for example 2016-01 or 2016-11. In the IndexTags in Minimserver properties I’ve added “Description:Date Added,” which indexes by this field and displays it as “Date Added” so I can browse my library by when albums were added and find recent acquisitions easily.
* For multi-disc sets, add “(Disc 1),” “(Disc 2),” etc. to the end of the album title, also make sure the Disc Number and Total Discs fields are populated.

Minimserver properties:
Server tab
IndexTags= Artist:Album Artist, Genre, -Description:Date Added, All Artists, Composer, Work, Soloists, Conductor, Orchestra, Grouping:Collections, #AudioQuality:Audio Quality

ItemTags= ArtistSort, albumartist, #AudioDuration,tracknumber,tracktotal

listViewAlbums= 25

mergeFolder Albums= false

TagOptions= Album.sortTags={Album, Artist}, all.ignore.sort={The, THE, the}, Composer.reverseName.display

tagVaue= Artist.Value.Sort={ArtistSort}

Advanced tab
tagCustom= Composer.displayRole={artist}, Orchestra.displayRole={artist}, Conductor.displayRole={artist}, Soloists.displayRole={artist}

tagFormat= Album.displayFormat={$album^$#AudioQuality^ [^]}, title.displayFormat={$tracknumber^^/$tracktotal^^: $title$#AudioDuration}, Artist.displayFormat={$artist^^^/$composer^ - ^^/$soloists^; ^^/$orchestra^; ^^, $conductor^; ^ conducting}