Re: Style for Editorial Rests

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026, Gabriel Ellsworth wrote:

> As for marking the rests as editorial, I would start with making them
>> smaller - that's another fairly commonly used method (I'm surprised no one
>> has mentioned it).
>>
>
> I might try decreasing the rest size; that’s a good idea!
>

I’ve consulted John Caldwell, Editing Early Music, 2nd edition (OUP, 1995).

In Appendix I: Special Signs and Conventions (p. 103), Caldwell recommends
using “small music type” (i.e., a decreased font size) for a number of
musical elements. One of the elements on his list is “rests added
editorially to clarify part-writing.”

If I understand him correctly, “to clarify part-writing” refers to
single-staff counterpoint (polyphony).

Here is an example of the convention that Caldwell means:

[image: image.png]
Source: Bach, Fughetta à 4, BWV 846a (Bärenreiter)

The whole rest in measure 8 is in a smaller font size because it is not in
the 18th-century source.

My situation is different, as my score contains a separate staff for each
voice.

But it’s worth trying this style. I attach a screenshot with the results of
the experiment

\tweak font-size -3


I like this approach: smaller notation font for the rests that represent
editorial early releases. Thank you, Paul, for the suggestion! I may go
with it — although, again, it’s not the same situation as what Caldwell
describes.

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026, Gabriel Ellsworth wrote:

>
>    1. To my eyes, the square brackets are a little too big on the page.
>    There are so many of them in this system of music that (given the size of
>    the symbol used) they are a bit distracting.
>    2. In addition (and more important), as people have mentioned on this
>    thread, by convention, square brackets mean something other than what I
>    mean.
>
> For those two reasons, I’m playing with angle brackets as an alternative:
> [image: image.png]
>

Caldwell’s Appendix I also recommends angle brackets — ⟨ ⟩ — but for this
purpose: to indicate

> enclosed material is indicated by special signs in the source but not
> fully written out (e.g. musical and verbal repetition, part-duplication)

(This is not true of my editorial early releases.)

A-R Editions follows Caldwell in printing angle brackets where the source
has idem markings for repeated text (see here
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2026-06/msg00220.html>).