Scene about short musical work united people (8)
I believe the answer is:
populace
'united people' is the definition.
'populace' can be an answer for 'people'. I am not sure about the 'united' bit.
'scene about short musical work' is the wordplay.
'scene' becomes 'place' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'musical work' becomes 'opus' (I've seen this before).
'opus' with its final letter taken away is 'opu'.
'place' going around 'opu' is 'POPULACE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for populace that I've seen before include "People generally" , "General public" , "Inhabitants" , "Citizens" , "Common people" .)