Dear Gabriel,
If you're more concerned about readability of the score for performance,
I would recommend going the route of leaving the score completely plain
with editorial changes and writing the list of original readings at the
end (the "critical notes" section).
It can be hard to keep track of editorial changes while you're editing
the score, but with scheme code it is possible to keep track of these
changes "in-line" and have Lilypond keep track of them for you.
-William
On 6/22/26 4:09 PM, Gabriel Ellsworth wrote:
Thanks, Kieren!
Kieren MacMillan wrote:
For anything “editorial”, I always prefer square brackets. (That’s
also the convention/standard seen in several critical editions/series.)
Do you happen to have a good example from a critical edition at your
fingertips? Or does anyone else reading this message know of a good example?
I found Using brackets instead of parentheses for \parenthesize -
LilyPond wiki <https://wiki.lilypond.community/wiki/
Using_brackets_instead_of_parentheses_for_%5Cparenthesize>and used that
code to mock up the following:
image.png
My concern with this approach is that busy professional singers might
see the square brackets whilst sight-reading and think, “What does that
mean? Am I actually supposed to observe that quarter rest or not? Do the
beats in this measure add up to a whole note or not?” The distraction
could cause reading errors and lost rehearsal time.
