EDITION DETAILS

PLEASE RESEARCH COPYRIGHT STATUS IN YOUR SPECIFIC LOCATION.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Notational and editorial conventions vary between eras, countries, editors, publishers, and style guides. Fairly generic, THE choices in these editions are based on practices seemingly most useful over years of college teaching.

EDITORIAL MARKINGS

Editing is restrained. Few markings beyond those found in sources are added or changed, other than reconciliations of score inconsistencies and general modernizing. No personal interpretations are added.

BEAMING

Beaming is based principally on metrical structure rather than syllabic structure with recognition of some poetical or musical phrasing, providing a more apparent visual map of metrical structure.

ARTICULATIONS

Generally, articulations are placed above notes in vocal lines, avoiding conflict with text underlay. Though somewhat contrary to some style guides, this also follows conventions observed in many Nineteenth Century scores.

WHY THE GRAPHICS AND FONTS?

A significant number of people possess strong visual memory and recall of visual clues often brings recall of the music itself. Labeling a score with graphics and fonts are simple means to supply visual memory prompts.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

As best as possible, accurate dates for composers and text authors are provided. A brief biography is included for most composers, except those well-known.
 

TEXTS: AUTHENTICITY AND ACCURACY

Original printings of scores often contained numerous inconsistencies, misspellings, mis-editing, errors, and other problems in the text.

If possible, an authoritative edition(s) of the text itself was consulted.

LIGHT TEXT EDITING FROM ORIGINAL SCORE PRINTING MAY INCLUDE:

       +Spellings, punctuation, capitalization, and form most often based on text sources unless modification by the composer is essential to the setting.

       +Hyphenation based on The Oxford English Dictionary.

       +Original spellings often used when texts are in a language such as Scots (as in Burns’ poetry).

       +Archaic terms retained, even if those terms may now be considered inappropriate or to be avoided, except in a very few scattered occasions.

Most pdfs include the text in poetic form, using appropriate formatting, spacing, and indentation for artistic printed presentation in program notes.

In professional ethic and respect, please refrain from using/altering these scores/pdfs to create a derivative edition. (see Terms of Use).

PERFORMANCE PRACTICE: The part-song of this era is often thought to be unaccompanied, although piano accompaniment ad lib. was widely accepted. These editions assume unaccompanied performance and few include a piano part— avoiding redundancy and saving page space, on the premise that moderately advanced choirs require limited keyboard assistance. Some original publications include a simple voice-doubling reduction “ad lib”. Those reductions are not included in these editions. If desired, an “ad lib” accompaniment can be created from the open score at the discretion of modern performers. If the original score included an independent accompaniment or “ghost” notes within the voice parts (suggesting an accompaniment was intended), the edition includes a piano part.