An Opus number (Latin sing. "work", "labour", a work of art, 1695–1705), pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works. Opus numbers have been used inconsistently throughout history and by individual composers, and thus are not generally a good indicator of the chronological order of the compositions or the relative completeness of a given collection. Opus numbers are commonly used to organise catalogues of musical compositions. The Latin plural, opera, also denotes the opera music genre, wherein the works also are (occasionally) identified with a musical composition opus number, as in the grand opera Samson and Delilah, Op. 47, by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Read more about Opus Number: Early Usage, 19th Century To Date, Alternative Catalogues
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“My idea is that the world outside—the so-called modern world—can only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivors—the one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poets—and to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)