Help:Style conventions

Note: This page was begun on 12 June 2009 and is still under construction.

Style conventions at ChoralWiki

The purpose of this page is to outline various style conventions in effect at ChoralWiki. These have evolved over the period of time since the inception of ChoralWiki in 2005, and the material presented here has been largely culled from norms specified in various places here, as well as from the practices adopted and agreed upon by Administrators. As a general rule, the style and grammar conventions here are the same as (or very similar to) those of Wikipedia. However, unlike Wikipedia, which has a huge number of users that regularly patrol, correct, and enforce conventions there, CPDL has a rather small core of volunteers (often with divided reponsibilities and commitments) for these tasks.

As a consequence, help from new volunteers for such tasks is solicited and will be greatly appreciated. Moreover, all users making contributions to ChoralWiki are strongly encouraged to become acquainted with and make use of the guidelines presented here, thereby reducing the workload on those having to make corrections to contributions in order to bring them into accord with style conventions.

Note: Sometimes there might be disagreement on these issues, in which case users should discuss the matter amicably towards an agreeable resolution, but in cases where acceptable agreement cannot be reached, please accede to a determination by the Administrators.

Titles of works and pages

In Titles that are incipits (when the title is the same as the opening words) use sentence capitalization. In English, capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns. In other languages other capitalization standards may apply (eg. German, which capitalizes most nouns).¹

• Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God
• Praise God from whom all blessings flow (Louis Bourgeois)
• Durch der Töne Zaubermacht (Franz Schubert)

For proper titles (different from the opening words) the English convention is that minor words are uncapitalized, such as pronouns (except "I" and, when it refers to the Deity, "Thee"), indefinite articles ("a", "an", "the"), standard conjunctions ("and", "or", "but", etc.), prepositions ("in", "of", "with", etc.). This is the convention many publishing houses use for book and other titles. An author might also decide that words other than proper nouns be uncapitalized. In German, Italian and other languages this case is not treated differently, i.e. sentence capitalization is the rule; in French however there is a large grey area.

• Birthday Ode for Queen Anne (George Frideric Handel)
• The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple (Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov)
• Missa pro defunctis (Gregorian chant)
• Chant des Chemins de fer, H 110 (Hector Berlioz)

For CPDL pages that are not work titles, capitalize only the first word and proper nouns, eg. "CPDL passes the 10,000 score pages milestone" or "Score submission guide" (have you read this? If not, you really should!). An exception: Category:SATB.

Arranger information

When posting an arrangement of a work by another composer that is not a significant recomposition of a work listed at ChoralWiki, the arrangement should be posted on the work page with the original composer's name, and the Arranger template cited just beneath the "Edition notes:" section of the arranged edition. Examples of such arrangements include Descants composed for a hymn, minor reharmonizations of hymns or hymn settings, new accompaniments (other than Keyboard reductions of a cappella works or straightforward Keyboard reductions of instrumental accompaniments).

Transposed edition information

When posting a transposition of a work to a key different from the original, the "Edition notes:" section should contain the degree of transposition (eg. "up a minor third" or "up three semitones"), and a Voicing template added just beneath the "Edition notes:" section specifying any new voicing resulting from the transposition.

References

¹ See Help:Score submission guide.