Brackets for individual staves

[Anders Hedelin]

That's like when your mum tells you to 'just be yourself'.

Maybe I deserved that...

But then again, common sense, vague as it may be, is not far from 'good taste' or 'intuition'. Admittedly, that might sound like other things a mum could tell you.
Rather much in our line of work is based on exact knowledge, but not quite everything, is it?

[John Ruggero]

To sum this up: If you are working for a scholarly edition, take care that you come as close as possible or practicable to the practice of the time when the music was written. If not, use your own common sense.

Actually, scholarly editions don't pay much attention to the practice of the time when it comes to things like brackets and braces and such. Here's why, I guess:

Bach Brandenburg no 1.jpeg (118.74 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

[Anders Hedelin]

Interesting observation!

When working with, and teaching, 16th century vocal counterpoint, I wanted to keep something of the old notation to create a mental gap between that and the more familiar styles of later times, styles which have a tendency to invade your imagination. So, I kept the old note values and clefs, but skipped the notation without barlines. I guess that was enough of an ordeal for my poor students.

The point being that you have to decide what level of historical accuracy makes sense in each situation, editorial or educational. I hope I chose more wisely than not.

[John Ruggero]

I agree. "Historical accuracy" should be for the sake of something important now.