Filter by custom taxonomy slug on a custom post type

As I stated in comments, use pre_get_posts to alter the main query. Never replace the main query with a custom one. Again, from comments

Just for starters, on each page load you are running the same query twice, it is slow, double the amount of db calls and pagination has to be tweaked to work almost 100 percent, this just to get the same posts 🙂

You can also check out this post I have done on the subject

To make the transition is quite easy, easier than you think. Here is how

Create a taxonomy.php template

Add the following in there (I have added php tags to make space for your HTML mark up)

<?php
    while ( have_posts() ) { 
        the_post();
?>
        <?php get_template_part('templates/content-works', get_post_format()); ?>
<?php
    }
?>

Now, you have to move your conditions to functions.php inside pre_get_posts (Requires PHP 5.3+)

add_action('pre_get_posts', function ($q) 
{
    if(!is_admin() && $q->is_main_query() && $q->is_tax()) {

        $q->set('post_type', 'works'); 
        $q->set('posts_per_page', 40);  
        $q->set('meta_key', 'wpcf-composition-date');  
        $q->set('orderby', 'wpcf-composition-date'); 
        $q->set('order', 'DESC'); 

    }

    return $q;
}

This should be enough to make things work

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