In Wagner's texts you will also find spellings like "Componist" (instead of "Komponist"), "civilisirt" (instead of "zivilisiert"), "Gemüth" (instead of "Gemüt") and so on. Keep them all: they are part of the flavour (or flavor, if you prefer!) of the language.
Michael Cook
Some time in the indefinite future I'm going to be editing a publication with some Wagner texts, and it will fall to me to decide whether to spell words with the sz ligature (ß) or with the modern "ss" spelling.
If anyone has opinions on the matter, or can point me to a good discussion of it on the Web, I'd love to hear it. (I would welcome opinions on the question of sz ligature in old texts generally or with regard to Wagner specifically.)
Most contemporary quotations I've seen use the modern spelling, but I kind of like the authenticity of preserving the older spelling. I'm not well educated on the question, though, so I'm seeking advice from others who know better than I do. I'm not so much interested in a yes or no answer as getting a feel for what the historical background is, what considerations of context go into making the decision, how it will be perceived by readers, etc. For what it's worth, the target audience of my publication would be English-speaking opera fans most of whom don't know much German.
thanks mdl
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