Tags for classical music

Tagging Ogg Vorbis or FLAC files (or MP3) for pop music is fairly straightforward, but there is little consistency between the proposed conventions for classical music. I'm trying to use both Slimserver and Amarok, but they don't use the same tags…

Here are the tags I decided to use, while waiting for better software. (Tags with * can appear multiple times.)

ARTIST
The composer, e.g., “Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)”.
COMPOSER
Usually the same value as ARTIST. It's there to indicate that the ARTIST is a composer. (Hence, if the artist doesn't appear in the COMPOSER tag, the artist is a performer.)
BAND*
The ensemble, e.g., “Orkestgebouworkest”. (Some pages on the Web propose ENSEMBLE, but I don't have any software that uses that tag, while Slimserver at least understands BAND.)
CONDUCTOR*
The conductor, e.g., “Leonard Bernstein”.
TRACKARTIST*
A performer that is singled out, e.g., “Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)”. (Some proposals use PERFORMER, but Slimserver doesn't support that tag.)
TITLE
Includes the name of the work and the mouvement, e.g., “Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1: 1. Vivace”. (This is rather long, but I have not found any support for the PART tag, which would allow separation of the work and the mouvement, nor the OPUS tag.)
GENRE
(Not yet decided what genres to use.)
ALBUM
Some interpretation of what is on the CD cover or on the spine.
DATE
The year the recording was made.
DESCRIPTION
Random comments, e.g., the year the work was composed or arranged.
TRACKNUMBER
If an album consists of several CDs, the tracks are numbered consecutively across the CDs, i.e., if the first CD ends with track 12, the seconds CD starts with track 13.
DISCNUMBER
The number of the CD if the album consists of several CDs. Not really necessary, because the tracks are numbered consecutively anyway, but maybe useful to write the album back to CD later. (Previously I used VOLUME, but abcde uses DISCNUMBER, so I decided to use that, too.)

If the title of the work is mentioned in multiple languages on the CD, I choose preferrably the title that the composer himself gave to the work.

Bert Bos
Created 9 February 2008
Updated 17 March 2013