Moving works to, and uploading them as, arrangements

[David Wilson]

I have just started contributing to IMSLP, and have uploaded two works Marinaresca veneziana and Noi siamo piccoli ma cresceremo. Both of these appear to be genuine folk songs, collected and arranged by Mario Foresi. When uploading I had intended to have them listed as arrangements by Foresi, rather than works composed by him, but I was unable to work out how to do this. By poking artound, I have worked out that they should belong to a category Foresi,_Mario/Arranger (which does not yet exist), rather than the category Foresi,_Mario, but I have no idea how to go about creating the former category and moving the work pages to them. Is it as simple as just adding the parameter assignment Arranger={{LinkArr|Mario|Foresi}} to their file description template, or do I need to something more complicated?

When uploading similar works, how do I go about categorising them correctly. I'm guessing from the rather meagre, and somewhat confusing (to me, at least), instructions for new contributors, that when I'm uploading them I should list their "composer" as "Traditional", and then later add the parameter assignment Arranger={{LinkArr|Mario|Foresi}} to their file description template. Is that correct? If not, what is?

[Carolus]

This is a bit of a tricky issue which we've developed an added field for, since they are indeed arrangements. I just put in the following field into the "General Information" section to accomplish this: |Page Type=Arrangement

[steltz]

When do we decide to put "Title (Anonymous)" on a page, and when should it be "Title (Arranger)"? I came across this the other day, http://imslp.org/wiki/Deus_ti_salvet_Ma ... ssandro%29, which you can find elsewhere on the net as Anonymous.

I've tweaked things on the page, i.e. the arranger listed it as a folksong, and since it is sacred in nature, and other pages called it a medieval sacred song, I changed the description to that.

But I still somehow feel it should be "Deus ti salvet Maria (Anonymous)" with the arrangements header.

What is the criteria for one as opposed to the other?

[Davydov]

If it's a complete, realized and harmonised composition whose author is unknown, then it's "Anonymous". This applies when a work definitely had a composer, but their name has been forgotten.

If it's a folksong or traditional melody, hymn, etc., and no single person(s) can ever be credited as the "composer", then another person (the "arranger") has to first write down the tune, then harmonize it and set it for particular instruments. This new version qualifies as the arranger's own work (just as if they were the composer), so their name goes in the title. Of course the same original tune can be arranged by different people, each of which becomes a unique work, qualifying for its own separate workpage.

Hope this helps (?)

[Carolus]

There's also the question about at what point an operatic-derived piece passes from being an arrangement (as used in the older sense of the term - a medley, melange, or potpourri, sometimes 'schottisches', waltzes and marches - to a fantasia or other original piece which uses the selection from the opera as a starting point. There was even the notorious pseudonym employed by Paris publishers "Cramer" - for the hundreds of potpourris and the like, with the different publishers apparently putting an initial (sometimes) in front of "Cramer" to distinguish the production of one sweat-shop of arrangers from another.