Instrumental Works

Instrumental works are often known by a generic name, such as symphony, quartet, sonata, etc. These names are capitalized, but are not in italics or quotation marks. More specifically:

• If a work has an alternative title, it should be written in italics.
• If a movement has an alternative title, it should be written in quotation marks.
• If the alternative title is written alongside the generic name, it should be written in parenthesis.

Words such as "number" or "opus" are abbreviated and are not capitalized. Other letters referring to the catalog of a composer's works (i.e., BWV for works by Bach) are also abbreviated, but are capitalized. Opus and catalog numbers should have a comma before them. If a work has both an opus number as well as a catalog number, write the opus number first followed by the catalog number.

Examples:

• Concerto no. 2 for Piano and Orchestra; the second movement, Allegro appassionato, from Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto; two piano concertos
• Ives’s Piano Sonata no. 2 (Concord, Mass., 1840–60) - or - Ives's Concord Sonata
• Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra (or Concerto for Orchestra)
• Bach's Mass in B Minor
• Carter's Figment, for solo cello
• Dvořák's String Quartet no. 12 (The American) - or - Dvořák's The American String Quartet
• Air with Variations (“The Harmonious Blacksmith”) from Handel’s Suite no. 5 in E
• Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
• Beethoven's Symphony no. 5 in C minor, op. 67
• Schubert's Winterreise, op. 89, D. 911

See Also: CMoS 8.195 - Instrumental Works

CMoS 8.196 - Opus numbers

Non-English Text

As a general rule, follow the rules of capitalization and punctuation of the original language. Specifically for German, this means that all nouns should be capitalized. For other languages, use sentence case - only capitalize the first word of the title unless there are proper nouns. The use of italics and quotation marks to show titles of works or titles of shorter works should follow the same conventions as English. Make sure to include special characters and diacritics (i.e., æ, ñ, ó, or ß).

Examples (from CMoS 11.8):

• We picked up a copy of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung to read on the train.
• She published her article in the Annales de démographie historique.
• Strains of the German carol “Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen” reached our ears.
• Miguel Hernández’s poem “Casida del sediento” has been translated as “Lament of the Thirsting Man.”

If the work has a translated English tile, include the translated title in parentheses after the original title.

Examples:

• Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
• Slavyánskiy marsh (Slavic March)

If possible, for languages such as Russian or Chinese which use a different alphabet, use the transliterated version of the title. A transliterated title is one where the text has been converted to the Latin alphabet.

Examples:

• Славя́нский марш, (Slavyánskiy marsh)
• 看不见的声音 (Invisible Voices)

Some basic changes you can make to titles in other languages include changing the punctuation between the title and the subtitle to a colon ( : ); capitalizing the first word of the subtitle; and changing guillmetes (« ») or other forms of quotation marks into double quotation marks ( " " ). Do not insert or remove any other punctuation marks when referencing materials in non-English languages.

See Also: CMoS 11.6 - Titles of Works From Other Languages

CMoS 11.8 - Italic versus roman type for titles from other languages

CMoS 14.99 - Translated titles of cited works