Certainly, and if I have do decide what it deserves to be called the most between "work" and "piece", I would go with "work". A piece is a work, a study is also a work. Everything Chopin created deserves to be called a work. Everything any composer creates deserves to be called a work.

Whatever K.511 is considered, I find it to be one of Mozart's most beautiful and intriguing works for solo piano.

Odd, I tend to use the word 'work' more often in relation to big works like Havergal Brian's 'Gothic' Symphony, or Mahler's 8th, or Bruckner's 8th. Or Bach's Goldberg or Beethoven's Diabelli. Anything less than 3 minutes and single movement is a 'piece'......

Another solution to how to use the word "work" might be to use it to the composers who has put a lot of effort in their music! For example, it is said that Chopin worked very hard with perfecting his pieces(therefore his pieces are works), while Schubert spitted out new music as often as he took a new breath(therefore he never wrote a single work)!

This is of course just a joke

Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is a work, but An die Musik is a piece.....

Or maybe, they're just songs, or Lieder .

Yes but how much effort did Schubert in Did Hirt auf dem Felsen? I mean, he was such a huge talent that it seems he could write down his music without even thinking, therefore, he never wrote a single work That's not to say that his pieces actually are works(these sounds wierd), but what I mean is, he probably did not have to WORK as hard as the majority of composers in order to get his ideas down

Well, Mozart composed whole operas and symphonies and concertos in his head while playing billiards ......and he composed his greatest symphonies (no.39 - 41) in less than 3 months, even though he wasn't commissioned and probably didn't even know whether they would ever be performed.

I haven't forgotten about Mozart of course, but he is veryyyy famous for his talent. I think Schubert deserves more recognition when it comes to talent. I mean, in a year(at the age of 18(!!!!) he wrote over 20 000 bars of music, which included nine church works, a symphony, four sonatas and 150(!) lieders(he wrote several of them in just a day) and a lot more!

The études of Chopin are a work, one etude is a part of a work and is not a work in itself. A major work. Chopin hears Paganini, decides to write not an étude but a set of études, a veritable manifesto. "Hats off, gentlemen, we're in the prescence of a genious."

You're darn tootin'! And my South African: "a weem o weh, a weem o weh" !

That's your personal definition of "work" and not the one used by everyone or found in the dictionary.

Here's one online dictionary that indicates that work, piece, composition, and opus are synonyms:

"Noun 1.musical composition - a musical work that has been created musical composition - a musical work that has been created; "the composition is written in four movements"
opus, piece of music, composition, piece"

FYI two posts ago the Pianist Corner was at 505050 posts. Kinda neat.

Yes, the set is most certainly a work, but each individual component (each crucial in comprising the whole) is absolutely a work itself. To state that one of these is not a work itself is to exhibit ignorance of the work(s) in question. Do your homework.

Oui, monsieur! Ah, it gives me pleasure to get laid into by you Stores!

Kinda? Who is Kinda?

Gregory Kinda is an Australian pianist who made some recordings on a real piece of work , the amazing Stuart & Sons piano. www.leatham.com.au/kinda

Touché!

fg