E D I T I O N S  P R O  M U S I C A  S P I R I T U S
Publishers of fine editions of early music for solists, ensembles, and educators

 

T O D A Y ' S   T E C H N O L O G Y
T R A D I T I O N A L   Q U A L I T Y

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Pro Musica Spiritus editions are manufactured using the latest digital software for music and text typography, and they are printed with UHR inkjet technology on the finest archival book papers available. Our editions truly set the standard to which the new generation of music publishers must aspire.

But technology is only a tool, and whilst it can enable, it cannot create.

To create a musical edition that meets the highest standards of quality requires people who can use that technology intelligently, with the ultimate goal—performance—kept firmly in mind at all times. Pro Musica Spiritus takes great pride in the skill, knowledge, and artistic excellence of the editorial and design teams who are collectively responsible for the appearance and content of our scores and parts. All editions are based on extensive research and are produced with a particular attention to such crucial graphic elements as staff scaling and page turns, layout stretch and line breaks, and staff and system spacing. The result is an edition of the utmost musical integrity, with scores and parts which satisfy the differing needs of conductors, instrumentalists, and singers.

We publish four categories of editions.

• Urtext Editions are carefully edited from the most authoritative surviving contemporary sources and include a full commentary and critical report. Urtext editions follow the strictest rules of modern musicological scholarship, and every substantive editorial change is fully documented and discussed in the critical report.
• Integral Transcriptions allow the editor to adapt a composer's original parts to the range of instruments other than those for which he wrote the music. No 'interpretive' latitude is taken in transcriptions, so the composer's original musical intent is preserved. Transcriptions generally include a historical commentary, as well as a brief critical report which discusses the editorial changes required to accomplish the transcription.
• Arrangements of sonatas and keyboard or vocal works for broken consorts or chamber orchestras often include new parts written by the editor, but are based upon the same authoritative original sources as our urtext editions and integral transcriptions. A brief commentary is included with most arrangements. Arrangements are appropriate for amateur ensembles and school orchestras;
• Neo-Baroque Series editions comprise original works written by living composers writing in the musical idiom of the first half of the 18th century. The Neo-Baroque style allows composers more freedom in development and modulation than did the 18th century rules, but it remains rooted in the traditions of the Baroque period. These editions are produced from the composer's original digital fair copy, and generally include performance notes by the composer as well as a brief biography.

Please note that we do not publish digital editions.

 

Edition Contents

All editions are supplied in an eco-friendly, unbleached twin-pocket folder for easy archiving in your music library, and are printed on high-quality, acid-free book papers. We use a buff-coloured, 80-lb. text for scores and parts; score covers are printed on matching 120-lb. vellum and all editions are saddle-stitched so that they will lie flat on music stands for easy page turns.

Our editions will last through many years of mark-up and erasures, and are ideal for solo and ensemble performers, state and university music libraries, and other users who require scores and parts which can withstand the rigours of constant use over time.

•All instrumental works come with a full score and one complete set of parts.

•Choral works which comprise instrumental accompaniment come with a full score and one set of instrumental parts. Additional offprint copies of the choral score are available at substantially-reduced prices to purchasers of these editions.

•Unaccompanied choral works come with one copy of the score. Additional offprint copies of the score are available at substantially-reduced prices to purchasers of these editions. Instrumental parts extracted from choral scores are also available as offprints for these editions.

•To accomodate keyboard players who do not read figured-bass notation, keyboard realisations (fully-notated keyboard parts) derived from the continuo parts are available for certain editions. Please note that keyboard realisations are not available separately, but must be purchased with the full edition.

 

Associate Editorial and Research Offices
Montreal, Quebec; River Hills, Manitoba; Dusseldorf,. Germany