Conventions and Abbreviations

Source Descriptions - Manuscripts

The elements within a manuscript description are normally:

    Source siglum; siglum of holding collection and relevant shelf number or other unique identifier

    Title

    Date

    Calligraphy

        Name(s) of scribe(s)

        Writing implements employed

    Paper

        number of staves

        maker's mark (if present)

        format (upright or oblong)

        dimensions (height ´ width; total span)

        other features (including paper or stave colour)

    Manuscript Structure and Collation

    Provenance

    Facsimiles

    Select Bibliography

    Notes

Where relevant subscript numbers are used to indicate stave numbers on a page, so that 1^r_2–4 should be read as 'folio 1, recto, staves two to four'.

In the descriptions of fascicle structures the following conventions are used:

Source Descriptions - Printed Sources

A main entry (e.g. for an Edition or Issue) will normally contain some or all of the following elements:

    Heading

        Source siglum - in LH margin

        Bibliographic descriptor - in capital letters

        Place of publication: name of publisher/distributor, date of publication

    Title Page

        Link to facsimile, if available

        Diplomatic transcription

    Wrapper

        Link to facsimile, if available

        Diplomatic transcription

    Analysis - detailed account of the make up of the publication

    Dimensions

        h x w (total span on first page of music)

    Printing Method

    Hofmeister - date of any relevant entry in Hofmeister's Monatsbericht

    Edition Number; Plate Number

    Printing Details

        Date of Print Order

        Date Copies Received

        Print Run (i.e. number of copies received)

    Copies - List of copies located

        Library siglum

        Shelfmark or other unique identifier

        Brief descriptive notes

    Notes

An entry for an individual exemplar may include some or all of the above elements as appropriate.

Bibliographic Terms

Any analytical bibliography will need to use terms to define the relationship between different copies of the same work. Unfortunately the four terms in general use – edition, impression, state and issue – cannot be rigorously defined and do not form a hierarchy. One of the sources of the confusions that arise is the fact three of the terms in common use are normally defined solely or chiefly in terms of the production of the copies concerned, while the fourth is defined in terms of the publication history of copies. Thus any attempt to arrange the four terms in a hierarchy is doomed to failure. Another source of confusion is the fact that chief users of the terms – bibliographers, library cataloguers, editors, collectors and booksellers – have different agendas and priorities and use the vocabulary in different ways. The following are the definitions, based in part on those of GDEPM,  adopted in the bibliographic descriptions of this catalogue, together with notes on some of problems and anomalies.

• Edition
  An EDITION consists of the whole number of copies of a distinct version of the work printed from substantially the same printing surfaces (be they settings of type, engraved plates, or lithographic stones or surrogates produced directly from type or engraved plates by processes such as stereotyping or photolithography), at any time or times.
  According to this definition study scores photolithographically reduced from prints pulled from unaltered plates of the first edition of the full score (PF₁), might arguably be considered to be simply a later issue or impression of that first edition. Though not common practice, such a description would have the merit of emphasising the fact that both published formats share a common printing surface (in this case the full score plates).
  On the other hand, when study scores of Mahler's works were prepared they sometimes incorporated significant revisions by the composer, so that in any case they constituted a new edition under the above description. Moreover, when Mahler revised the score yet again for a new edition in full score format (PF₂), it was not uncommon for subsequent impressions of the study score to reproduce the superseded version of the work for some time.  For this reason the the publishing histories of the two formats (full score and study score) are treated as separate narratives in the descriptions.

• ISSUE
  An ISSUE consists of the whole number of copies of an edition put on sale at any time or times as a consciously planned unit.
  As GDEPM makes clear separately, 'the concept of issue reflects an integrity of commerce, that is, copies have in common their conditions of sale'. So the description of a copy as an exemplar of the second issue is itself conveying no information about the version of the musical text it reproduces, only that the publishing arrangements had changed since the first issue. Nevertheless it can be useful to be able to pinpoint such changes, so the term is occasionally employed here, though only to reflect substantial changes in the conditions of sale (i.e. changes in publisher or distributor), not minor alterations (e.g. changes in price).
  It must be borne in mind that the creation of a new issue does not necessarily involve the production of additional copies. If a new publisher or distributor or publisher takes over unsold stock from the original publisher, and simply pastes new imprint information onto the cover and title pages of the unsold copies a new issue is created.

• STATE
  The term STATE is used to discriminate between copies of a single edition that exhibit variations in content caused by purposeful alteration of the printing surface that does not result in the creation of a distinct version of the work.

• IMPRESSION
  The term IMPRESSION describes all the copies as a unit run off the press at one particular time (i.e. as one press run).
  On the whole the term impression is preferred and used more extensively in this catalogue, especially since some information about the date and extent of print runs is available. Where necessary revisions to the printing surface are noted in the narrative descriptions.

Library Sigla

The RISM library sigla may be found in The New Grove Dictionary of Music ed. S. Sadie (London, 2001). The siglum GB-Lpc is used for private collections within London, UK.

Source Sigla

These are used for the sake of quick reference, and are broadly based on the system adopted by the New Berlioz Edition.

Subscript alpha-numeric additions are used where the same designation applies to more than one source for a work, and/or, where necessary,  to distinguish between different layers of revision in manuscripts (e.g. ACF_2a = second copyist's full score with autograph annotations, first layer of annotations) different editions, issues, impressions and states (see above, Bibliographic descriptions) in the case of printed editions (e.g. PF_1b = first edition of the full score, second impression or issue).

In discussions of copyist's manuscripts with autograph annotations the normal siglum may be shortened by the omission of the initial 'A' (e.g. CF₂ rather than ACF₂) to indicate that it is the original copyist's text that is being referred to; the context should always make the meaning unambiguous.

Stemmatic Diagrams

• These read from the top left down

• The sigla of  lost or unlocated sources are enclosed in square brackets

• Sources in vertical alignment are different states of the same document

• Solid lines represent confirmed relationships

• Dotted lines represent conjectural relationships

Performances

In the lists of performances during Mahler’s lifetime, entries for performances by conductors other than Mahler have a shaded background. A graph showing the number of performances per year is added at the end of the entry.

Measurements

All measurements are in millimetres unless otherwise stated. The abbreviation 'mm.' is only employed where necessary to avoid ambiguity

General abbreviations

Pitch Notation

© 2007 Paul Banks  |  This page was lasted edited on 19 November 2009