Discography

Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings and/or video recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry for a specific recording will often list such details as the names of the artists involved, the time and place of the recording, the title of the piece performed, release dates, chart positions, and sales figures.

A discography can also refer to the recordings catalogue of an individual artist, group, or orchestra. This is distinct from a sessionography, which is a catalogue of recording sessions, rather than a catalogue of the records, in whatever medium, that are made from those recordings. The two are sometimes confused, especially in jazz, as specific release dates for jazz records are often difficult to ascertain, and session dates are substituted as a means of organizing an artist's catalogue.

A compilation of a performer's piano rolls can be called a "rollography." A listing of video recordings can be called a "videography"; for example, Charles H. Parsons' An Opera Videography (1997, vol. xx of The Mellen Opera Reference Index), which lists 895 videos of 298 operas by 116 composers.

History

The term discography may have first been published in the Phonograph Monthly Review in January 1931, as "A Farrar Discography" by William Henry Seltsam. The article listed recordings of American soprano Geraldine Farrar from 1906 to 1923. Each entry included title, composer, manufacturer's issue number and the estimated year of recording.