[MEI-L] What is a cautionary accidental?

Richard Freedman rfreedma at haverford.edu
Tue Apr 5 03:26:49 CEST 2016


For the Renaissance tradition of the cautionary accidental, I would suggest
looking at the work of Don Harran:

Harrán, Don, (Author). "New evidence for musica ficta: the cautionary
sign." *Journal Of The American Musicological Society* 29, no. 1 (Spring
1976): 77-98.

Richa


Richarichard

If you

On Mon, Apr 4, 2016 at 6:03 PM, Eleanor Selfridge-Field <
esfield at stanford.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>
>
> “Behind Bars” does not give the whole story.  The musica ficta track
> (Renaissance and early baroque music) involves providing (usually in
> parentheses above the affected note) an alteration that may be introduced
> by a performer to respect the movement within a particular hexachord.  It
> is not a hard-wired part of the score or the encoding, but of course it is
> unavailable to the performer unless it is indicated in some way.  It is not
> cautionary; it is optional.
>
>
>
> The later-music track usually uses cautionary accidents to warn the
> performer of something that is ingrained in the score might be missed in
> the visual environment, especially return to the key indicated in th4
> signature after a modulation or an alteration that carries over a
> page-turn.
>
>
>
> At the encoding level, no special provision is required for the second.
> The accommodation is in the rendering, which is up to the editor.
>
>
>
> Regards to all,
>
>
>
> Eleanor
>
>
>
>
>
> Eleanor Selfridge-Field
>
> Consulting Professor, Music
>
> 541 Lasuen Mall
>
> Braun Music Center #129
>
> Stanford University
>
> Stanford, CA 94305-3076, USA
>
> esfield at stanford.edu
>
> Profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/eleanor-selfridge-field
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* mei-l [mailto:mei-l-bounces at lists.uni-paderborn.de] *On Behalf Of
> *Erik Ronström
> *Sent:* Monday, April 04, 2016 5:54 AM
> *To:* Music Encoding Initiative <mei-l at lists.uni-paderborn.de>
> *Subject:* Re: [MEI-L] What is a cautionary accidental?
>
>
>
> Quoting ”Behind Bars” :
>
>
>
> ”An accidental that is repeated later in a bar, even though it is not
> strictly necessary, is called a ’cautionary’ (or ’reminder’ or ’courtesy’)
> accidental. Cautionary accidentals confirm the pitch of a note that might
> otherwise be questioned […] Atonal and highly chromatic idioms should
> include cautionary accidentals to assist accurate reading.”
>
>
>
> Erik
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 4 apr 2016 kl. 14:40 skrev Anna Plaksin <annplaksin at gmx.net>:
>
>
>
> Dear list,
>
>
>
> while I was looking for a way to deal with musica ficta signs, I came
> across the @func attribute. Whereas the definition of an editorial
> accidental is clear to me, I’m wondering how a cautionary accidental can be
> understood. I didn’t find any further explanations for this particular
> attribute.
>
> Or I try it the other way round: Does someone know a way to encode musica
> ficta accidentals? How could they be distinguished from other explicit
> accidentals without declaring them as editorial – because they are written
> in the source.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom with me. :-)
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Anna
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Richard Freedman
John C. Whitehead Professor of Music
Associate Provost for Curricular Development
Haverford College
Haverford, PA 19041

610-896-1007
610-896-4902 (fax)

http://www.haverford.edu/users/rfreedma
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