A fact from Missa brevis (Nystedt) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 July 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Latest comment: 4 years ago8 comments2 people in discussion
See Missa Brevis (Bernstein) but Missa Brevis (Britten). The title of a work should be italicized (especially when accompanied by "Op." or a catalog number (BWV, KV)), but I see that many of them based on generic names (such as this and Requiem) are not. It looks like an error. Has this been formally discussed before? Jmar67 (talk) 00:43, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
No. We don't italicise Symphony, Magnificat, Requiem, Nunc dimittis, etc, - generic titles. The Britten and Bernstein should probably be changed as well, but they at least use a different uppercase, so debatable if generic or not. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:12, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
That ought to be covered by the MOS as an exception, if it is valid. I would argue for italics. This reminds me of the composer infoboxes: "We don't do it". Was the subject ever debated? Jmar67 (talk) 10:53, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
I'm not a MOS person, but isn't there something covering that we don't italicise "Symphony" and "Violin Concerto", regularly? "Missa brevis" is just the same. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:04, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
The general MOS guidance is to italicize titles of works. I can see an argument for not doing it in the "generic" case, but I would like to see it discussed. Also saw the Classical music project "Guidelines" page and joined. Jmar67 (talk) 11:42, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
That gives "A generic name for a generic composition type is not italicised. This is language-independent, e.g. Liederkreis (German for song cycle) is not italicized in Liederkreis, Op. 24 (Schumann)." But the title is italicized. Jmar67 (talk) 12:28, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
There are grey areas. The normal translation of song cycle to German would be Liederzyklus, but I don't know a single composition of that name, only as a description to a title. Liederkreis is somewhat poetic and would mean "Circle of songs". Also, not everybody is familiar with our MOS, and it made me want to cry for A Boy was Born, - the superiority of "our" sacred MOS over a composers published title, I mean. The published title for Nystedt's work is a clear "Missa brevis" in 2003, - haven't seen the older. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:55, 3 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
