iTunes & classical music

[H-P.]

Hi there,

I am currently importing a lot of classical CD's into iTunes and I am wondering if it's possible to sort the albums and pieces just like in the iTunes Store. For example:

Bach: Sonatas for Piano (Album)
Sonata No. 1 in G Major etc. (Piece)
1. I. Adagio (Song)
2. II. Allegro (Song)
3. III. Andante (Song)
4. IV. Allegro etc. (Song)
Sonata No. 2 in D Major etc. (Piece)
5. I. Adagio (Song)
Etc.

Instead of:

Bach: Sonatas for Piano (album)
1. Sonata No. 1 in G Major – I. Adagio (Song)
2. Sonata No. 1 in G Major – I. Allegro (Song)
Etc.

I hope this is possible, because why using it in the Store only, right? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance!

HP

 

[bluespark]

Of course -- just number the tracks. If you do that, it will sort by track number rather than name.

 

[H-P.]

Of course -- just number the tracks. If you do that, it will sort by track number rather than name.

Thanks for your reply. I don't know what you mean exactly, but the only workaround I found is to change the "pieces" of the album into discs instead of tracks only.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Like this? Sadly no.

 

[H-P.]

Like this? Sadly no.

View attachment 591078

Exactly like that! That's quite a limitation of iTunes, especially for those listening to classical music.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Exactly like that! That's quite a limitation of iTunes, especially for those listening to classical music.

Yeah, apparently it's been a problem since the very beginning. Probably a limitation with metadata.

 

[Partron22]

especially for those listening to classical music.

Classical has always been a nightmare, no matter which software you use to listen. You've got albums with multiple composers, orchestras, conductors, soloists etc etc. And the track labeling is inconsistently horrible, eg:

Title and track:
Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Suite no. 4 in E-flat major II. Allemande Mstislav Rostropovich, cello ... track 2 of 7

Once you have a CD, it can take 20 minutes just to get the mess they make of track titles and other info into a shape that you'll ever be able to find the music again.

 

[mojolicious]

Even with my library of ~50 operas it's a mess; for serious classical listeners it must be a nightmare.

I might be imagining things, but I'm sure that during the early days of digital music there were (commercial) alternatives to iTunes designed specifically to meet the challenges of organising and tagging classical music. Can't find any such software now, but I'd say they're needed more than ever: the editing of fields in iTunes seems to get clunkier with every iteration. And *everything* has to be retagged if you want any consistency, because the Gracenote database for classical music is all over the place.

MusiCHI Suite looks incredibly comprehensive, but is defiantly non-OS X.

I presume you've looked at a few of the results for https://www.google.com/#q=itunes+for+classical+music ? There must be something useful there!

 

[Partron22]

Probably a limitation with metadata.

They could've easily included user extensible metadata categories that'd show up in sort categories. Or at least a formal multiple genre/subgenre system. This stuff is not rocket science