accidentals

By A-R's house editors

An incipit is a brief notational segment placed before the first measure of a piece, in each staff, intended to clarify the relationship between the notation of the edited transcription and that of the source from which the piece has been transcribed. In editions of Western music, incipits are used primarily in editions of music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early baroque, as many of the notational conventions of these earlier eras—particularly those concerning clefs, rhythmic values, meter and key signatures, and metrical organization—differ significantly from those used in modern music engraving. In choral and vocal music of the Renaissance and before, where vocal ranges can be somewhat less standardized than those of later music, it can also be helpful to include range finders at the start of each part as a guide to performers.

By Esther Criscuola de Laix

The phrase musica ficta (literally, “fictitious music,” “false music”) comes up in almost every critical edition of medieval or renaissance music ever published. Originally, the term referred to notes that did not fit within the hexachordal system devised by Guido d’Arezzo in the eleventh century and used as the standard music-theoretical system in Western Europe for almost six centuries following. However, when editors of medieval and early modern music use this term, it is specifically to refer to the means and practices of translating into notation the altered pitches that were not expressly notated in written music—the ones early performers would have applied on their own initiative, but which might not automatically occur to modern performers. This article provides a summary of A-R’s house style and recommended practices for notating musica ficta.

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, this post, while by no means exhaustive, offers broad guidance on best practices for deploying cautionary accidentals in a critical edition.

By Alexander Dean

A further investigation into accidentals in modern editions of early music, this post deals with the challenges presented by various sources, and how the editor might go about choosing from the available options.

By Pamela Whitcomb

Developing an editorial policy for accidentals can be tricky business, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Converting from archaic conventions to modern ones often means prioritizing either form or function: form-based approaches favor editorial transparency, while function-based approaches prioritize clarity of content.