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[timwtheov]

Thought I'd ask this here, since I'm not sure it's even possible to do this.

What I'm looking to do is create a randomized smartlist of, say, 5 classical compositions ([AMG Work Name] in my system) that I can listen to each week. That's easy enough of course, but the hard part, the part that may not be possible, is having it function a bit like "Expand to full albums" in the search wizard but for the composition itself and on a given album.

For example, let's say in a randomized search of all my tagged classical albums it hits track 3 of an album containing Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies conducted by Carlos Kleiber, I'd want the resulting smartlist to contain all four tracks of Beethoven's 5th (track 3 would be the 3rd of 4 movements) but not tracks 5-8, which are Beethoven's 7th, nor all the other versions of Beethoven's 5th I have by other conductors, on other albums, and for the remainder of the smartlist to contain the other 4 random compositions it finds, fully expanded if said compositions have have more than one track on a given album.

Looking at the Search Language on the Wiki, it looks like ~expand might be partly what I need, but how do I expand a particular composition on a particular album? Seems like a conditional is needed there and something like GroupCountQuery in the expression language. Is something like this possible?

[wer]

Yes, this is possible. I do it.

You need to be more discriminating with your definition of composition, though.  For example, you might have the exact same composition, performed by different performers, on different discs/albums.  If you do not account for that, expand will span all the tracks of that composition across multiple albums, which is not what you want.

I use the field [Composition] to denote the name of the composition; this would parallel your [AMG Work Name].  I then create a calculated field [Artist - Album - Composition] that concatenates those fields to make a unique identifier for a particular performance of a composition. [Artist - Composition] concatenates just those two fields, and would encompass all instances of a composition by a composer (I consider Artist=Composer for classical).

If you're wondering about the necessity of these extra fields, consider what happens on an expand. Then if you still don't understand, I can explain.

For extra credit, do you see the significance of the field I used with the nodup, instead of using the same field as I used with the expand?

Here's a smartlist that I use that plays 6 hours (instead of 5 compositions).  Adapt it for your use. For 5 compositions, you would have to just change the type and position of the limit.

Code: [Select]

[Media Type]=[Audio] [Genre]=[Classical] ~nodup=[Artist /- Composition] ~sort=Random ~expand="Artist - Album - Composition" ~t=6h
Have fun.

[timwtheov]

Ah, didn't think of a calculated field. That makes it much easier.

Regarding the extra credit, I'm going to guess that it's a failsafe for composers and compositions if the album name is the same. I looked up

Code: [Select]

/-
on the wiki and on some expression cheat sheets I have but didn't see anything about it with a quick glance; I was going fast, however.

Anyway, thanks for the example!

[wer]

Bzzzt. No, but thanks for playing. 

The field used for nodup, [Artist - Composition] is less discriminating than [Artist - Album - Composition].  It allows different performances of the same composition (which would naturally be on different albums, which is why Album is not a part of it) onto the smartlist.  If you use  [Artist - Album - Composition] for both the nodup and the expand, any composition will only appear once on the smartlist. Unless you have two performances of the same composition on the same album, which I've never seen. But if you manage to find one, just add soloist or something to the calculated field to further discriminate.

[kr4]

Unless you have two performances of the same composition on the same album, which I've never seen.

It happens.  Sometimes.

[timwtheov]

Thought I'd follow up after finally getting it working. Here's the final version:

Code: [Select]

[Media Type]=[Audio] [Genre]=[Classical] [ClassGrouping]=[Chamber],[Concerto],[Electronic],[Orchestral],[Solo Instrument],[Vocal] ~nodup=[Composer/-AMG Work Name] ~sort=Random ~expand="Composer - Album - AMG Work Name" ~limit=8,-1,[AMG Work Name],[Composer]
Had to add the

Code: [Select]

~limit=8,-1,[AMG Work Name],[Composer]
to avoid only getting 5 (or 8: decided 8 compositions was better for a week's listening) tracks for compositions that had more than that (e.g., operas) and then had to limit it further with [Composer] after [AMG Work Name] after I was getting multiple compositions called, for example, "Symphony No. 2" (had about 20 of those: I tag from AMG and sometimes pieces have minimal and therefore identical composition names).

Thanks again, Wer, for your help!

[wer]

had to limit it further with [Composer] after [AMG Work Name] after I was getting multiple compositions called, for example, "Symphony No. 2"

Thanks again, Wer, for your help!

That's exactly what I was talking about at the outset with those additional calculated fields. It's easy to have multiple "Piano Sonata #1" compositions by multiple composers, so you have to discriminate more than by just the name of the composition.

Glad you got it working...