Running musical piece’s characterised by notes, I gathered (11)
I believe the answer is:
operational
'running' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'musical piece's characterised by notes i gathered' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'musical' could be 'opera' (I've seen this before) and 'opera' is present in the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is found in the answer.
'piece' could be 'n' (abbreviation for Knight in chess notation) and 'n' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for operational that I've seen before include "Ready for action" , "running" , "Ready for use" , "working satisfactorily?" , "In working order" .)