Question re: Sorting Albums and Artists in Library > Tag view

[Tim Curtis]

Have you tried the Saved search feature? It can be used to create Library views.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Have you tried the Saved search feature? It can be used to create Library views.

I’m embarrassed to say I have not. You don't seem to suffer this problem ( ) but there never seem to be enough hours in my day. I’ll get on it, honest.

Regards,
Kent

[rongon]

I always use Moode with its Library > Tag view showing.
I'm a late boomer who grew up with vinyl, so I always play albums, not playlists.
I sort my digital music the same way I sorted my physical LPs and CDs: Genre > Artist > Album

That said, I should try that Saved Search feature. I guess first I need to find it, then learn how to use it well...

I think ID3 tags and similar were designed for pop music titles where the Artist is the name of the person or performing group whose album you buy (e.g., James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Woody Guthrie, Radiohead, like that), as opposed to the composer of the music being played. Like Nutul, I don't choose which album of Mahler's 9th I want to listen to by searching for the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Bruno Walter conducting. I go to Mahler (the composer) and then pick which Album I want to play.

I think it would be great if within a defined Genre view, the Classical genre could have its albums sorted by Composer, while in the Rock, Jazz or R&B genres, albums could be sorted by Artist. But I suspect MPD doesn't allow that, so...

I sort Classical music the same way Nutul does, by making the composer the Artist. That way I can sort all genres by Artist in the Library > Tag view.

First, for the Genre tag I've put all of the following types of music in the classical genre:
- Renaissance (Palestrina, Josquin de Pré, Gesualdo, etc.)
- Baroque (JS Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel, etc.)
- Classical (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, etc.)
- Romantic (Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann, etc.)
- Post-Romantic (Bruckner, R. Strauss, Mahler, etc.)
- classic Opera (Wagner, Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, etc.)
- Impressionist (Debussy, Ravel, Fauré)
- Modernist (Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Hindemith, Shostakovich, etc.)
- Whatever they call melodic orchestral music these days like Dutilleux, Corigliano, Gorecki, etc. (Post-Modern?)

I would go crazy trying to remember if Mahler was in Post-Romantic or Modern, or if Schubert was in Classical or in Romantic.

I have a separate Genre called Contemporary
- Minimalism (Reich, Glass, John Adams, etc.)
- Third Stream (Gunther Schuller, etc.)
- New Music (Laurie Anderson, Arvo Part, George Crumb, etc.)

To differentiate between different performances of the same composition, I put the names of the orchestra, conductor and any soloists in parentheses after the name of the work, like this:

Classical > Mahler > Das Lied von der Erde (Klemperer, Ludwig, Wunderlich, Philharmonia/New Philharmonia)

as opposed to

Classical > Mahler > Das Lied von der Erde (Bruno Walter, NY Phil, Miller, Häfliger)

Jazz music is also a hornet's nest. Rather than break it down into all its sub-genres, I just call it all "Jazz" and pick what I want to listen to by Artist. I don't need to look for Miles Davis music by sub-genres like Cool Jazz for "Birth Of The Cool", Modal Jazz for "Kind Of Blue", Jazz Funk for "On The Corner" and Fusion for "We Want Miles". Just Jazz > Miles Davis > pick the Album by its title.

I do have to split hairs to divide Latin Jazz from Salsa or Son. I mean, most of Mongo Santamaria's albums were more Jazz than Son or Salsa; they're really Latin Jazz. Likewise with Tito Puente. But where do I put Irakere? Some things are going to have to be judgment calls. So I have a large catch-all genre for Latin, which includes Salsa music, Cuban Son, Puerto Rican Bomba y Plena, and Colombian Cumbia, but excludes Latin Jazz, which I put in the Jazz genre. So, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria go into Jazz, but Willie Colon and Ruben Blades go into Latin. Cal Tjader? OK, the system breaks down with him. Nothing's perfect...

Even with all these judgment calls going on, a really *strict* sort by Artist (Strict) would allow me to get the job done without interference from less-used tags like Performer or Conductor.

Thank you for all the work on improving Moode. Version 8.3.6 is really good. It's working fine for me now.
And also, thank you for the quick education on music file metatags. I didn't realize they're such a mess.