A Scholarly Edition is a scholar’s (or team of scholars’) attempt to show the composer’s intentions. In preparing a scholarly edition, scholars examine all types of primary and secondary sources: the autograph manuscript, first printed edition, important copyist manuscripts, composer’s writings related to the piece, etc.
Scholarly editions usually include an introduction, footnotes, and/or other text that explains what sources they used to make the edition and how they used them. Within the score, they should clearly distinguish their markings from the composer’s.
There are three types of scholarly editions:
- Scholarly Edition of a single work = Scholarly Edition or Critical Edition or Urtext Editions
- Scholarly Edition of a set of scores from a single composer = Collected Works Editions or Sämtliche Werke
- Scholarly Edition of a set of works of similar genres or styles, or works from the national group or country = Historical Series or Denkmäler or Historical Monument.
When might you need a scholarly edition?
- When you are preparing for performance, and want to ensure you're playing from an edition created by trusted experts.
- When you are acting as a scholar: researching for a paper or program notes, or analyzing a piece.
- When you want to learn more about a composer’s output, works of a particular genre style, or works from a particular region.
- To understand a work’s context -- either in the context of other works by the same composer, or in the context of works of the same genre/style or from the same region/era.
Finding Scholarly Editions
A Scholarly Edition of a single work is often called a "scholarly edition," "critical edition," or (as you may have heard before) an "Urtext Edition." All editions of single works are filed with performing editions in the general collection (please see Performing Editions tab for more about performing editions generally, and urtext editions specifically!).
How do you find an Urtext Edition?
- Method 1: Go to Baylor Library Catalog Advanced Search, and...
- Limit "material type" to "scores."
- Search by Author: [Composer's last name]; [piece title]; and [Urtext]
- Method 2: If you can't find an Urtext Edition of the single piece, remember you can find a scholarly version of the work inside a Collected Edition or Historical Series (see previous tab for details).
How do you find a Collected Works Editions / Sämtliche Werke?
- Just browsing? They can be found in the M3 section, on Moody Library’s 3rd Floor.
- Looking for a specific composer's collected works?
- Recommended: Use Baylor Library Catalog's Advanced Search and...
- Limit "material type" to "scores"
- Search for: [Composer's name] and "Works OR Werke"
- Expert tip: These editions are not always called "Works OR Werke"; depending on the language of publication, they can be called: Opera omnia, Tutte le opere, Oeuvres complètes, or Gesamtausgabe. Try these terms in the place of "Works OR Werke" if you can't find what you're looking for.
- Another way to search: Go to Oxford Music Online Database from the Baylor Library Website and...
- Search for the composer’s full name.
- Go to the composer’s article and scroll down to their works list, if they have a collected works edition, it will be listed there.
- Recommended: Use Baylor Library Catalog's Advanced Search and...
- Looking for a specific work within a composer’s collected works? Go to Oxford Music Online Database from the Baylor Library Website and...
- Search for the composer’s full name.
- Go to the composer’s article and scroll down to their works list, locate the specific work in the works list. It may tell you where it is!
- Uppercase Roman numerals = Series number
- Lowercase Roman numerals = Volume number
- Arabic numerals = Page number
- Example: "II/x, 108" = the score can be found in Series 2, Volume 10, page 108
Important notes:
- Some composers have multiple collected works editions as scholars keep up with evolving scholarly consensus on their works or even discover new works.
- Not all composers have collected works editions, but if they have a smaller output, they may be included in a historical series or historical monument (see the next tab for how to search for these!).
- Oxford music online This link opens in a new windowThe most comprehensive reference work for music in English, with continually updated content. Searches Grove Music Online initially; on search results pages, provides links to more results from The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press.
How do you find a Historical Series, Denkmäler or Historical Monument?
- Just browsing? These can be found in the M2 section, on Moody Library's 3rd Floor
- You can also search the catalog using Advanced Search for author/creator: composer's name and call number: M2 to search for a particular composer's works within a series.
- Looking for a specific piece in one of these volumes? This can be tricky...
- Recommended: Go to the IPM (Index to Printed Music) Database through the Baylor Libraries website & search for the piece title.
- Index to printed music This link opens in a new windowA finding tool used to identify individual works within scholarly editions published from 1720 to 2006, such as the complete works of composers and historical anthologies. IPM provides many ways to search -- by composer, editor, series, title, genre, instrumentation, and more. Once items are found, search OneSearch to see if the collection is available in the Crouch Fine Arts Library. IPM uses the EBSCOhost interface.
