In 1968, The American Choral Directors Association approved a resolution supporting the recommended standards for editing public-domain choral music which had been prepared by a committee consisting of Walter Collins (Chair), Walter Ehret, Iva Dee Hiatt, Don Malin, Alfred Mann, Hames McKelvey, Richard Pisano, Denis Stevens, Jacklin Stopp, John Owen Ward, and Franklin Zimmerman. These standards were distributed widely throughout the profession and the publishing industry at the time. (See The Choral Journal: May/June, 1968; January, 1970; and November, 1971).
In the late 1970's, it became apparent that previously adopted standards required revision and that technical input from the music publishing industry would be beneficial. Consequently, a new Choral Editing Standards Committee was appointed which consisted both of ACDA members and members of the Music Publishers Association. After several years of deliberation this committee has produced the following document. It reflects the conviction of the publishers of choral music and the ACDA membership that both should support the highest possible editorial standards for choral publications and addresses itself to the principal questions which the committee considers to be the most pressing. It does not, however, make any claim to exhaustive coverage of all possible questions or problems.
It is hoped that the ACDA membership will support the recommended standards by purchasing publications which exemplify the editing practices recommended below.
Three terms, "arrangement," "transcription," and "edition" are often encountered in publications of choral music. Their usage has too often been arbitrary and imprecise, and it is thought that clear definitions would be helpful both to the publisher and the purchaser.
An arrangement is a reworking of a piece so that the performing forces, the musical content, or the form are substantially different from that of the original. This may occur, for example, when a solo song is rewritten for chorus, when a folk song is harmonized, or when a principal theme from a well-known symphony is given a text and recast for voices. The original work from which the arrangement has been made, its composter (if any), its opus or standard catalogue number, and the performing forces for which it was originally intended should be cited.
Publications which have nothing more than suggestions for interpretation (e.g., temp and dynamic indications) and perhaps a translation added to the original are more properly called editions rather than arrangements and should be expected to follow the standards for editions recommended below.
The term "transcription" is customarily employed in instrumental music; it is rarely used in choral music. Therefore, it is recommended that the term be avoided in choral publications.
"Transcription" in the sense of rewriting in modern notation a work originally transmitted in some form of early notation should normally be considered a function of the editorial process.
An edition is the presentation of a work in an authoritative version which makes it accesible to modern performers. All cases in which the editor has departed from, or added to, the source upon which the edition is based should be clearly identified, so that the performer can, if he so chooses, reconstruct that source.
The editor should provide a brief introduction in which are explained the ways in which the source has been altered, e.g., modernization of clefs, signatures, and nomenclature, application of the principles of Musica Ficta, addition of tempo or metronome and dynamic indications, and adjustments in the orthography of the text.
Publishers and editors of choral publications should consider the following recommendations concerning information which should be supplied when possible.
The original title, opus, or standard catalogue number (e.g., BWV, Kochel), performing forces, composer (and his dates), and author or source of text should be cited. Excerpts from larger works should be so identified. The original instrumentation should also be described.
Editors should preserve the integrity of the original work insofar as possible while rendering it accessible to modern performers. To this end, nomenclature, clefs, key signatures, and indications of mensuration should be given in modern forms.
Since many users of performing editions will desire considerable guidance, the editor should, where appropriate, provide such suggestions for performance as metronome settings, tempo indications, and dynamic markings. For unaccompanied pieces, keyboard reductions should normally be provided for rehearsal purposes.
The three recommended clefs are the treble (G), the transposing treble (the tansposing tenor G clef, indicated by the subscript 8), and the bass (F).
Measures should be numbered in order to facilitate their identification during rehearsals.
Scores should contain only one part per staff. Where two adjacent parts move homophonically for extended passages, both voices may be scored on a single staff with stems in opposite directions.
For works with continuo, the figures supplied in the source should be reproduced in order to represent the composer's harmonic intentions faithfully, even though keyboard realization is furnished. Realizations should be provided in a manner appropriate to the composer's expectations, and the person who has provided the realization should be identified.
Normally instrumental beams should be used instead of flags for note values smaller than the quarter note.
The editor has the obligation to identify the source used for the edition and to indicate clearly what material is his and what is foud in the source. This can be accomplished by use of the conventions traditionally employed in musicological editions. Where certain consistent adjustments have necessarily been made to render earlier notational practices in their modern equivalents, a short statement describing these adjustments should be included in the introduction.
The original text should be underlaid immediately beneath the music in all voices. Where the original text is in a foreign language and a singing translation is provided beneath it, the original text should be printed in Roman type and the translation in contrasting type. Phrasing marks for the original text should be solid; phrasing marks for alternative phrasings, required by translation, should be dotted or broken. Editorial slurs should be crossed.
Where a singing translation is provided, the author of the tranlation should be identified. Where no singing translation of a foreign language is provided, a literal prose translation should be furnished so that the performers may understand the sense of the text.
Where appropriate, pronunciation aids should be offered for foreign language texts.
Spelling and punctuation should conform to modern practice, unless there are special reasons for preserving the orthography of the original.
The author or source of the text should be identified, and for liturgical texts the function should be indicated where appropriate. Biblical texts should be indentified by book, chapter, and verse.
Unaccompanied works should normally be furnished with a keyboard reduction for rehearsal purposes, and it should be clealy indicated that the reduction is for rehearsal purposes only. (In Renaissance music, however, recognition should be made of the fact that a keyboard instrument or other instruments frequently doubled or replaced the voice parts even though no instrumental parts may exist.) The keyboard reduction should be in full-sized notes, rather than in cue size.
Where a keyboard reduction of the instrumental parts has been provided for a work originally scored for voices and instruments, it should be identified as such, and the instruments which the keyboard part represents should be listed. The person who has prepared the reduction should be indentified.
When phrase marks, breath marks, dynamic indications, or metronome markings are provided, they should be furnished consistently throughout the work and, insofar as possible, be reflected in the keyboard part as well.
The approximate duration of the work should be indicated in order to assist program planning.
The presentation of information which would assist in creating an historically authentic performance is highly desirable.
The MPA and the ACDA reaffirm the principles set forth in the guidelines issued jointly by the MPA and the Music Educators National Conference under the title "Standard Music Engraving Practice." (See Music Educators Journal, February-March, 1966, pp. 52-56.)