On 19-Nov-07, at 4:25 PM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
On Mon, November 19, 2007 2:50 pm, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
In my view, it would depend upon the musical sophistication of the
likely users of the score. The more expert and familiar with early
music, the more one can omit both; the lower the level of
sophistication, the more necessary both accidentals are.
A few folks have said this, but it bothers me. Sophistication? Does
that
mean this sophisticated singer is going to be insulted by courtesy
accidentals? Is the presence of courtesies actually a sales
limiter? Will
these sophisticated buyers put the score back on the shelf with a
snort?
And who knows what hands the score falls into, irrespective of its
intended audience. What about future history, when score reading
shifts?
Scholarship changes, and I lived through the early music period of
"yes,
this is flat" and "no it's not" and Noah Greenberg's madness and
published
editions like (IIRC) Oxford's that did the old hands-off, putting
every
accidental as an editorial suggestion above the note. Will future
performers have to re-research what was meant by the courtesy-free
score,
just to be sure to be sure? It's not like courtesies are some sort of
pornographic stain on perfectly good white paper. Or are they to such
sophisticated singers?
I DO think it has to do with the audience. If it is meant to be a
scholarly edition of a period piece, the presence of unwanted,
unnecessary or controversial accidentals might very well cause a
learned musician to doubt everything else about the edition if it
doesn't adhere to the standards of the period. He might very well put
it back on the shelf, or choose a different edition. Details like
this are very important to the musicians concerned, that's why I
deferred to those expert in the subject.
If it is meant to be a modern educational work, then that is a
different story. There might be compelling arguments to be made in
that case.
Thankfully, I deal almost exclusively with new, or at least modern
(last sixty years) music, so I don't have to argue with editors over
what a dead composer intended. I can just call him up most of the
time. Good luck with that, by the way, Dennis C.
Christopher
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