Schubert Song Cycle Discography

Abbreviations

• When abbreviations are used, the cycles are identified by a one or two character abbreviation:

• D = Die schöne Müllerin
• W = Winterreise
• SF, SH, SR = Schwanengesang
  • SF = Full version
  • SH = Heine songs (nos 8-13), with or without Die Taubenpost, No. 14
  • SR = Rellstab songs (nos 1-7), with or without Die Taubenpost, No. 14

• When abbreviations are used, the categories are identified by a one character abbreviation:

• A = Arrangement, etc
• C = Commecial or pirate
• P = Private, off air or non-commercial
• Q = Questionable

• When abbreviations are used, the voices are identified by an abbreviation:

• Men's Voices
  • ct = Counter-tenor
  • ten = Ten
  • bar = Baritone
  • bb = Bass-Baritone
  • bas = Bass
• Women's Voices
  • sop = Soprano
  • mez = Mezzo-Soprano
  • alt = Alto/Contralto
• Non-singing or Instrumental Voices
  • un = Unknown
  • sp = Speaker
  • cel = 'cello
  • trb = Trombone
  • vio = Viola

• When abbreviations are used, the instruments are identified by an abbreviation:

• fp = Fortepiano
• guit = Guitar
• hfl = Hammerflügel
• hkl = Hammerklavier
• inst = Instrumental ensemble
• pf = Pianoforte
• sq = String Quartet
• un = Unknown

• Recording and release dates are (usually) suffixed with a letter that explains what the date represents. The meanings are:

• c = 'circa'. An approximate date of the recording or release. This is usually an 'educated guess' based on the medium and other known recordings by the performers, or is based upon known, dated reviews.
• p = This is the p notice or phonogram date. This is normally the first date of the sound recording, but it apparently has slightly different meanings under different copyright laws. You will often see a much later p notice year on a CD which is a later remastering of an analogue source. This is used when a precise recording date is not given on the liner notes, but a (p) date is given.
• r = Known date of recording, usually given in the liner notes.
• x = This is a spurious date, usually to ensure that questionable performances are sensibly sorted.
• Where no suffix is given for a release date, this is the copyright (© ) date, quoted on the medium or liner notes.

• Where a total timing has the indicator '**' after it, it indicates track timings (and thus total timings, which are the sum of the track timings (and thus may differ from what is on the sleeve notes)) taken directly from the track lengths. Such timings will incude pauses, which will make them longer than they truly are. This should be taken into account when doing comparisons between performances.

• The SPARS Code (DDD, AAD, etc) is a recording industry code developed by the Society of Professional Audio Recording Studios (SPARS). The code indicates the encoding mode of the three generations of recording, mixing/processing, and reproduction (in that order). The letters stand for A = Analogue, D = Digital, X = Unknown.

• For the recording medium, the following abbreviations are used. Where the recording is part of a 'box set', the number of media in the set is given in brackets. Thus, for example, CD(3) means that the recording is part of a box set of 3 CDs.

• 78 = 78 RPM records (shellacs).
• CD = Compact Discs.
• DVD = Digital versatile disc.
• EP = Extended play. A record with 17.5 cm diameter, played at 33 1/3 rpm or 45 rpm, and giving extended playing time of up to 8 minutes on each side.
• LD = Laser Discs.
• LP = Long Playing (normally means 10 or 12-inch diameter, 33 1/3 RPM) records.
• MC = Music cassettes (tapes).
• MP3 = MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) Layer III, a digital audio compression format. Refers to digital audio files of that format
• Video = Video Cassettes.