Digitality and Music Editions: Thinking about the Roles of Editors
- Authors
- Topics:
Digitality is as much a method as it is phenomenon of textuality and media – or: ‘mediality’. In musical editions it opens new ways of accessing and presenting music and musical sources. Researchers who deal with these questions are permanently changing their roles as music philologists, editors and mediators. Following the diverse discussions about authorship in literature studies and, for some time, in musicology, this lecture aims to focus on editors and their various roles as actors of digitality.
On the one hand, the boundary between transparent action and the shifting of editorial decisions towards the recipients of a music edition is to be examined more closely. Since several studies have already shown that the outcome of musicology-related digital methods is to be found in musicological thinking, it is important – on the other hand – to take a closer look at the reasons for these changes. Could they be the result of new digital possibilities in music editions and do they occur during the editing process? Or did digitality enable other ways of academic thinking, so that there is really a shift in editorial concepts in general?
Learning Outcomes
After viewing this lecture, you should be able to:
- Comprehend digital musical editions on the interface of publication of musical sources and playbility.
- Distinguish the changing roles of musicology researchers within the development of digital music edition as actors of digitality.
- Critically review the influence of digitality in enabling other ways of academic thinking in musicology.