
By Alex Widstrand
In previous UnderScore posts we have dealt with the broad topic of accidentals, both in terms of tailoring the policy governing accidental usage to the needs of a particular source and more generally how to balance form and function in accidental application. This third installment focuses on cautionary (or “courtesy”) accidentals: those pitch inflections not strictly necessary by standard notation conventions, but that are nonetheless useful in dispelling ambiguity. Since the question of what is or is not musically ambiguous is quite subjective, the application of cautionary accidentals tends to vary from one composer or scribe to the next. As such, when it comes to editing music that predates modern notational conventions, there are two levels to navigate: first, the assessment of how cautionary accidentals are treated within the source; and second, the decision of whether or not cautionary accidentals need to be added as an editorial intervention. In any case, an attempt should be made to impose some degree of consistency within a particular edition’s cautionary accidental policy. This post, while by no means exhaustive, offers broad guidance on best practices for deploying cautionary accidentals in a critical edition.
The most common place a cautionary accidental is needed is where an inflected pitch appears immediately before a barline and the same pitch class is then repeated immediately after the barline in the same part, now uninflected, such as on the downbeat of measure 41, first violin part, in example 1 below. Although the accidental in the previous bar is technically negated at the barline, nearly every modern publisher—A-R included—gives cautionary accidentals in all such instances. (Note: If an inflected pitch is tied across a barline, the accidental used to cancel that inflection in the new measure would typically not be considered cautionary; see example 2, cello part.)
Example 1. Ferdinand Ries, String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, movement I, “Allegro con spirito” (mm. 40–41), from Three String Quartets, Op. 150, ed. Allan Badley (N086), 6.
Example 2. Pierre Rode, String Quartet in D Major, movement I, “Moderato” (mm. 35–36), from Selected String Quartets, ed. Sam Girling (N087), 4.
A similar situation occurs where the inflected pitch does not immediately precede the barline but is close enough to its uninflected counterpart (usually within the preceding beat or two, depending on the rate of harmonic change) to warrant clarification, such as in the violin 1 and viola parts in example 3, measure 97. The parenthetical B♭s in example 4, measures 8 (basse de violon and continuo) and 11 (taille de violon) function similarly.
Example 3. Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, Requiem in E-flat Major, movement I, “Requiem aeternam” (mm. 93–97, trumpet and strings only), from Requiem in E-flat Major (1790), ed. Dianne Lehmann Goldman (C116), 13.
Example 4. “Scène 8” (mm. 7–12), from La chute de Phaéton, comédie en musique (1694), ed. Natasha Roule (B233), 46.
This practice, however, should always be guided by good musical sense. Even if the close proximity of an inflected pitch suggests the addition of a cautionary accidental, other elements such as harmonic progression and the contour of the musical line may already provide sufficient clarification. In example 5, for instance, an editor might be tempted to place a cautionary natural on the cello’s G in measure 70, but the clear precadential harmonic motion—plus the fact that no reasonable musician would be likely to play an augmented second (F–G♯) here—makes a cautionary accidental both unnecessary and undesirable.
Example 5. Andreas Romberg, String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, movement I, “Allegro” (mm. 67–72), from Three String Quartets, Op. 2, ed. W. Dean Sutcliffe (N089), 57.
A cautionary accidental is also valuable where there is a sudden change in mode (e.g., major to minor, or vice versa) without an accompanying change of key signature. In such cases, supplying a cautionary accidental on the third of the relevant triad immediately clarifies the modal shift. This can be seen in the fourth measure of example 6, where the first violins’ cautionary C♯ signals the end of the A-minor tonality of the previous phrase; the cautionary G♮s that follow in the violas and basso further clarify the pitch content of the new mode.
Example 6. Giuseppe Sarti, Tebe Boga khvalim (mm. 246–50, strings only), from Te Deum Settings for Prince Potemkin’s Victories, Part 1: Tebe Boga khvalim (1789), ed. Bella Brover-Lubovsky (C117, forthcoming), 60.
In more chromatic repertoires, it is often helpful to supply a cautionary accidental when the same pitch class occurs simultaneously, or in quick succession, with different inflections (see the parenthetical G♮ in example 7, measure 89; see also the first violin part in measure 72 of example 5 above). However, if one such inflection clearly serves a purely ornamental function, such as that of a chromatic lower neighbor, common in music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a cautionary accidental on its differently inflected counterpart is less necessary (note the lack of a cautionary natural on either of the Cs in the upper octave in example 8). This is particularly true when dealing with double-sharps and double-flats, which seldom apply beyond their immediate context.
Example 7. Allen Sapp, Piano Sonata No. 1, movement I, “Andante” (mm. 89–91), from Piano Sonatas I–IV, ed. Alan Green (A090), 4.
Example 8. J. B. Henneberg, attr., “Aria: ‘Ein Mädchen, die von Liebe heiß’” (mm. 4–5), from Der Stein der Weisen (Vienna, 1790): Piano-Vocal Score, ed. David J. Buch (C076P), 79.
In Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (London: Faber, 2011), Elaine Gould recommends supplying cautionary accidentals to “confirm that diminished and augmented intervals are intentional” (p. 82). While we generally discourage the wholesale adoption of this practice (particularly in editions of tonal music, where these intervals are usually made clear by their tonality and voice-leading), it can be applied sparingly in contexts where clarification is absolutely necessary.
When dealing with scores for multiple instruments, a question that often comes up is whether or not an inflection in one part necessitates a cautionary accidental on the same pitch class in another. As a general rule, we prefer to avoid this practice, because it can lead to confusion in the individual instrumental partbooks: a cautionary accidental that makes sense only in the context of the full score may look perplexing in the extracted part, especially given that Recent Researches partbooks omit all editorial distinctions such as parentheses. Rare exceptions can be made to this policy, such as in the instance of a particularly jarring dissonance that players are likely to question, but they should be kept to an absolute minimum. In the case of choral music, however, inter-voice cautionary accidentals are generally permissible, as the chorus typically functions as a single “instrument,” with all voices reading from the same choral score.
To maintain consistency within an edition, you will need to decide whether and how often to preserve cautionary accidentals from your edition’s source (again, see our previous post). This should be decided on a case-by-case basis, but it ultimately boils down to the question of whether or not the source cautionary accidentals are actually useful to modern users. In many of our editions, most source cautionary accidentals are omitted tacitly under a broader policy of removing redundant inflections; this flexible approach allows for the preservation of only those source cautionary accidentals deemed nonredundant by virtue of the fact that they provide helpful clarification.
If your edition does preserve source cautionary accidentals, they should not be set in parentheses; parenthetical notation should instead be reserved for editorially added cautionary accidentals—although in some cases it may be more appropriate to use brackets to identify all added inflections, whether cautionary or not.
In summary, it is best to keep the following general principals in mind when determining how extensively to use cautionary accidentals in your edition:
- Less is more. In Recent Researches volumes, we prefer to keep cautionary accidentals to a minimum, as they can add unnecessary, distracting visual clutter. If you find yourself torn about whether or not to include a cautionary accidental in any particular instance, ask yourself: “If I leave out the cautionary accidental here, would any reasonable, competent musician likely play the wrong note?” If the answer is no, it is better to leave it out.
- If you are using parentheses to distinguish editorial cautionary accidentals in your edition, a good way to test whether a cautionary accidental makes sense or not is to see how it would look without the parentheses. If it looks strange as a regular, non-editorial accidental, then it is probably unnecessary to include it as a cautionary accidental.
- If you find that your editorial policy is resulting in an overabundance of cautionary accidentals, this may be a sign that you should stop and reevaluate your policy.
- “Less is more” does not, however, necessarily equate to “none is best.” While some editions simply do not need cautionaries accidentals due to the nature of their musical contents, authors should not feel compelled to avoid including them where they are genuinely needed.
- Be consistent. Cautionary accidentals are admittedly more flexible than most other notational elements, but within a single edition there needs to be a consistent cautionary accidental policy in place.
- Consider the context. Performers can be trusted to have some familiarity with the period-specific characteristics of the music they play, so cautionary accidentals that might appear in a nineteenth-century string quartet, for example, would likely be unnecessary in a sixteenth-century motet, even in passages with otherwise similar pitch content.
Alex Widstrand is a house editor with A-R Editions.