Referencing Music in Resumes & Bios

Compiled by Peabody LAUNCHPad, Updated Aug. 2018

When referring to musical works in bios and resumes, the most important thing is to be consistent.

Below are some suggested best practices for listing musical works in your professional materials.

Generic Titles: Set in standard roman typeface, not italics. Terms for genres are capitalized when part

of a title but lowercase when not.

 Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet, the third string quartet that Shostakovich composed…

Specific Titles: Names of musical works given by the composer are italicized.

 Short Ride on a Fast Machine by John Adams; Richard Strauss’s Don Juan

Subtitles: Descriptive secondary names, or “nicknames” not given by the composer, appear at the end

of the title within parentheses either in quotation marks or italics.

 Haydn, Symphony No. 101 in D Major (“The Clock”) or …(The Clock); Bruckner, Symphony No. 2

(Symphony of Pauses) or … (“Symphony of Pauses”).

Individual numbers, songs, or movements: In larger works these are put in quotation marks, as are

titles or first lines of songs and hymns.

 “The Trumpet Shall Sound” from Messiah; “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicci; “Von der Wissenschaft” from

Also sprach Zarathustra

Note: Foreign words within quotation marks are already clearly separated from the words of the text, and do not require italics.

Opus and Piece Numbers: Abbreviate “op.”, and “no.” and do not capitalize. When a number is

used to specify a particular work it is not set off by commas unless it is the second number in the title.

When numbers are spelled out in a title they are capitalized.

 Chopin Prelude no. 12, op. 28; Piano Sonata in C Minor, no. 8, op. 13, “Pathetique”

Notes and Keys: Capital letters are used in professional writing. Key signatures are spelled out in lower

case then hyphenated with the associated key- never shorten to (#) or (b).

 Sonata in F Minor; Prelude and Fugue in G Major; Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; Piano Sonata no. 18, op. 31 in E-

flat Major

Foreign Terms: Foreign terms that are familiar to your audience should be set in standard roman type.

Unfamiliar foreign terms should be set in italics and follow the original language’s capitalization rules.

 The symphony’s allegro movement… ; Mahler’s fascination with Weltschmerz…

Concert Halls: Whenever possible use the full name.

 Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall; Leith Symington Griswold Hall

Further Reading: Turabian, A Manual for Writers; Wingell, Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide