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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.
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March 15, 2023Read More
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.
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August 10, 2022Read More
By Alexander Dean
A “critical” edition is concerned with faithfulness to a source, and its authenticity, along with the probity of the editors involved, is bound to an understanding that the source material has been adequately and conscientiously accounted for. But any source will present elements that fall into a gray area, not at once sliding into their place in even the most carefully constructed pre-transcription editorial methodology. Prime among these are layout-specific elements: those numbers, directives, and graphical notations that serve in manuscripts and early music prints to guide readers and performers safely from one page to the next. Since, in the translation to a modern edition, the layout will necessarily change, one might be tempted to dismiss any such marking out of hand, along with the source page numbers and other obvious candidates for tacit removal. While this is not a bad rule of thumb, at least to start out, each type of notation will need to be evaluated on its own.
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April 21, 2021Read More
By A-R's house editors
In general, all the rhythmic values in an A-R Recent Researches edition should be transcribed from their source in a 1:1 ratio. That said, it is almost always necessary to make some small graphical adjustments to both notes and rests from most sources. Here is a quick guide to A-R house style for the graphical presentation of notes and rests.
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February 10, 2021Read More
By A-R's house editors
There are four principal factors in determining score order in Renaissance vocal music: modern choral score order, defined, in descending order, as soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB); voice names employed by the original manuscript or print; clefs assigned to the original parts; and the vocal ranges of the parts. Because of the prevalence of modern choral score order, all editions should begin with this as the guiding editorial rule: voices are arranged in standard choral order from highest to lowest.
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January 13, 2021Read More
By A-R's house editors
Composers and notators throughout history have employed a variety of notations to indicate repetitions of musical passages, from repeat barlines to first and second endings to more complicated verbal instructions like da capo al fine or dal segno al fine. Here are some tips for handling various types of repeat notation in A-R’s house style.
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June 12, 2019Read More
By A-R's house editors
Three types of editorial intervention occur in the process of critical editing, and there are distinct ways that these interventions are shown in the edition.
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February 27, 2019Read More
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.
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December 19, 2018Read More
By A-R's house editors
’Tis the season for ornaments! Here are a few tips on dealing with trills, turns, mordents, and the like.
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October 04, 2018Read More
By A-R's house editors
The title of each piece in an edition should usually reflect that given in the source. If the source lacks titles, per se, they can be drawn from a table to contents, devised from text incipits, or based on descriptive attributes. The editorial method should indicate the source of the titles and what kind of alterations (if any) have been made.
