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...that is Heinrich Albert (1870 — 1950) Guitarist and Composer - imslp page http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Albert,_Heinrich

and

Heinrich Albert (8 July 1604 Bad Lobenstein – 6 October 1651) composer page I wish to create.

How should these composers be differentiated? I do not know any middle names for these. Just the year of birth perhaps? What form should the name take?

Heinrich Albert (1604)

Thanks.

I've not checked it yet, but I would recommend LOC name and title authorities as a starting point. As with many composers of the ca.1600 era, I expect Albert may have Latinized his name on any published scores, possibly into something like Henricus Albertus.

Unfortunately that's not the case. The LC authority shows:

• Albert, Heinrich, 1604-1651
• Albert, Heinrich, 1870-1950

There are no alternative names given in the LC catalogue (although the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists "Henricus Albertus" as an alternative to the main heading of "Albert, Heinrich, 1604-1651").

If the dates are the only way to distinguish between them, am I right in thinking it would be problematic to list them this way on IMSLP, given how the system interprets composer names?

I think that would indeed present a problem for the IMSLP system.

And there will be more examples of this, particularly with medieval/Renaissance composers where father and son (and sometimes even a third generation) had the same name...

Following the LoC name authority is a good start, but I think it would have to be qualified by something else to establish uniqueness - the dates are probably necessary?

Regards, Philip

It would probably be easiest to attach a death date to the last name of the composer in question to more easily distinguish the two, for example: Albert (d. 1950), Henrich

I wonder if there is a way to make the program sort composer names by invisibly including the dates - which are already provided in most cases as part of the category page. That might solve the real problem which has surfaced here without having to resort to various additions and appendices to the name itself.

I think we went through this a while back, although I don't remember the verdict. Feldmahler or Leonard would probably remember. I seem to remember us finding the extent of this sort capability and it didn't do what we want.

Uh... better ask Feldmahler... (sorry, I can't seem to remember)

I know that in Schubert's case (now resolved I see by using the French first name for the other Schubert) we used the place of activity ("Dresden" for the more obscure Schubert), but in this case I would suggest, in light of the huge disparity of death date, to use that as the differentiating factor. Furthermore, I would suggest moving the existing composer + work pages to include the death date. If you do not know how to do this, don't worry about it; just ask an admin to take care of it.

For example:
Albert, Heinrich (d. 1950)
Albert, Heinrich (d. 1651)

In essence, I agree with Daphnis, though I would put the date at the end. But that's just a very minor taste issue. Because of the rarity of name collisions, I would resolve them on a case-by-case basis instead of putting down any solid guidelines, since the circumstances really could be very different.

P.S. I am pretty sure there will not be a problem in the system. But if there are problems, contact me via e-mail or my talk page.