On Thu 22 Jan 2026 at 10:15:00 (-0500), Gabriel Ellsworth wrote: > Gabriel Ellsworth wrote: > > Werner LEMBERG wrote: > > > >> Does this style exist somewhere in real-world music, or is > > this your ad-hoc design? > >> > > I am pretty sure that I have seen this style (or something very close to > > it) printed in a published modern edition of a piece of choral music. Off > > the top of my head, I cannot recall what piece that was. If I track it > > down, I will let you know. > > Below is a relevant example from real music. The musical context: The key > signature has five sharps. Then, there is a system break with a > key-signature change to five flats. > [image: image.png] > [image: image.png] > > The parenthesized B-flat note head is not actually a custos note; it is not > referring to the note that follows after the system break. But its style is > very close to the style for modern custodes that I have in mind, so I think > it is a useful example. > > Does anyone else on this list have a published example to share?
Sure—they're pretty common in British choral music, but in my experience they're enharmonic guide notes, giving the other name for the adjacent note that they're printed left or right of, making an interval (even a unison) easier to read and pitch. Examples I happen to recall and can turn up: Britten, War Requiem, 2 after [3], 2 after [6], 6 after [47], 3 before [85]; Elgar, Music Makers, Novello, 5 & 10 & 11 after [25]; Finzi, God is gone up, Boosey & Hawkes, pp 4, 13 & 15; Howells, Hymnus Paradisi, Novello, 5 & 6 after [8], 3 before [24], 3 after [65]; Vaughan Williams, Sea symphony, Stainer & Bell, I at [L] and at [N], 5 after [Z]; VW, Five Tudor Portraits, OUP, I at [11], III 10 after [3], at [7]. In Hymnus Paradisi there's also the odd enharmonic pair written as tied notes, drawn with a slur, e.g 1 before [11]. I don't recall ever seeing a /custos/ note printed at the end of a system, even where such an opportunity exists. I would find it confusing to see one in print, although it's something I pencil in quite frequently, independently of enharmonics, but in the /Margin/. Cheers, David.
