What does op. mean?

[nonfox]

Hey....

Different pieces is given a number and a opus?..
But what does opus mean? Why are pieces given a opus?

[henrah]

It is latin for work, so Rachmaninov's Prelude in C#minor Op.3 No.2 could be translated to Work.3 No.2

At least I think it's a straight translation. It's latin, I know that much...
Henrah

[Ruro]

From what I have seen viewing PianoPedia, I think it's also the Chronological order pieces were made, so effectively earliest to latest. Just to be confusing I noticed some composers have 2 systems, Mozart with the KV and KKV or something O_o Sometimes one is a revision, or someone else has compiled the works into an order, perhaps not in a chronological fashion.

Also... Scriabin I think it was... or Scarletti, one of the "S" names has 2 systems too, god knows why though :/

Concurred on the Latin ^_^ I would be confident saying that was language.

Might as well compile the friggin things and find all the different translations:

Bartok - SZ (For some reason I have SZ.49 Allegro Barbaro)
Mozart - KV
Mozart - KKV (Or something similar to above)
Bach - BWV
Bruckner - WAB
Chopin - B (I have some B Numbers among some Piano Solo Variations)
Chopin - CT (Similar to the above, this is used with the Hexaméron Variations)
Rachmaninoff - TN (I think these were numbers for the Transcriptions only?)

No doubt I missed a load of others, considering the amount of composers there are :/ Apologies if I have anything wrong!

[pekko]

There is also Pestelli (P) numbering for Scarlatti sonatas. The others are Longo (L) and Kirkpatrick (K).

[prometheus]

Opus means work. Most composers works are arranged by opus number chronologically based on their publish date.

Op. posth and WoW are for works published after the death of the composer.

Some composers works are catalogized by someone, or some institution. Examples are Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti, look here for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_number

[letters]

i think composers like Mozart with khockel (however u spell that) numbers is cuz of the sheer volue of stuff they had, however beethoven goes into the hundreds with his opuses. Haydn also has his own system. Im not sure why they sometimes have different systems, just a way to catalogue stuff. And with opuses, the smaller the number, the earlier it was composed in a composers life. Its really just cataloguing.

[mikey6]

i think composers like Mozart with khockel (however u spell that) numbers is cuz of the sheer volue of stuff they had, however beethoven goes into the hundreds with his opuses. Haydn also has his own system. Im not sure why they sometimes have different systems, just a way to catalogue stuff. And with opuses, the smaller the number, the earlier it was composed in a composers life. Its really just cataloguing.

Kochel was a man who attempted to order Mozart's works chronogically.  Mozart only started it later on, in the 1780's I think.
Schubert has opus numbers and a 'D' (number) on most of works, depending which were published.  Opues numbers are generally only applied to published works during the composers lifetime I think and they're not necessarioly chronological (eg.  Bethoven op.49 sonatas).