I am working on producing HA scores of Gibbons' First Set of Madrigals and Motets. I have to say that this has been an interesting exercise. Gibbons wrote these pieces in parts, using black notes. (The printed edition I am working from was printed in 1612.) Figuring out the parts and integrating them into a single score is a lot like trying to work a crossword puzzle.
Figuring out the notes, rests, and their durations has not been difficult, and there are on-line resources that answered a couple of questions I had about that. There are, however, a couple of spots where I wish to indicate emendations I have decided to make, and I am not quite sure how they should be indicated in the score. I'd like to get it right, because I am considering sharing the files on IMSLP.
Some of my emendations are corrections of obvious errors, that I don't feel right about correcting "silently," and then there are a couple of spots where I feel the piece in question would be more euphonious if I applied or omitted an accidental to a certain note. The question is what liberties an editor can legitimately take, and what the principles are by which I should be guided. And also, how such emendations are customarily indicated in the score.
Can anyone recommend an on-line reference? My searches have not come up with anything useful. Or failing a link, a book that doesn't cost too much? (I can cope with French or English, and could even make my way through a text in Spanish, if necessary.)
Mille mercis en avance.
« Last Edit: Sep 30th, 2022, 10:34pm by PaulL »
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Le coeur a ses raisons, que la Raison ne connaît point. Paul Littlefield, retired Church musician
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