Re: [OT] Figured bass numbering practice: +4 / 4+ / 4# / #4

[Andrew Bernard]

Greetings Philippe,

This practice predates the age of industrialisation and standardisation. People were inconsistent. Similarly with spelling. Very normal in Baroque scores in general. If you are preparing an edition then you must make musicological decisions about how to handle such things. You can either regularise the notation, or copy the original and provide a critical report that discusses the matter (or not!). The notations you mention are equivalent. Often with 4 you see a small vertical slash through the horizontal bar of the four - this is also common and means the same. There’s no one answer. It’s up to you. It depends how ‘urtext’ you want to be. Slashes are faster to write for copyists in a hurry!

Andrew

On 21 May 2015 at 17:10:55, flup2 (address@hidden) wrote:

Does someone know what could explain the use of different numbering for the
same meaning? 
Philippe