Opus is a Latin word which means "work" (in the sense of "a work of art").
Some composers' musical pieces are identified by opus numbers which generally run either in order of composition or in order of publication. The usual abbreviation is "Op.". "WoO" stands for "Werk ohne Opus" or "work without an opus number" (particularly in the music of Beethoven). "Op. posth." means "opus posthumous" or "work [published] posthumously".
Certain composers' works, particularly from the baroque and classicist era, when works were less often written specifically for publication, and when publication numbers that do exist are both inconsistent or unhelpful (two opus 1 sets of violin sonatas for Mozart, for instance), have been definitively cataloged by a given scholar, and in such instances these works can be unambiguously referred to by their thematic catalog abbreviations.
See also
Last updated: 10-12-2005 17:42:43
