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A bit strange question here: have you ever encountered a slur or tie marked as editorial with short stroke in the middle (like the one that can be found e.g. in Dorico)? The thing is, I try to convince my chief editor to follow this convention instead of using bracketed slurs, since I find the former one to be more legible and clear, but he's willing to concede only after I can prove it's a thing that is already in use. So, if anyone know where can I find such slurs/ties I would greatly appreciate some bibliographic reference or screenshots.

Many thanks in advance!

Alex Kowal
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    In my own experience, I've found dashed/dotted slurs to be more common than these slashed slurs. – Richard Jul 14 '22 at 14:41
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    @Richard You're absolutely right, but since we use dashed slurs for something else, I wanted to find a "third way" for marking editorial interventions – Alex Kowal Jul 14 '22 at 14:50
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    I've even seen editorial markings (admittedly in the Musescore.com self-published website), including slurs, in different colours instead of being slashed/dashed/dotted/bracketed. – Dekkadeci Jul 14 '22 at 18:23
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    What do you use dashed slurs for? – JimM Jul 14 '22 at 19:10
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    @Dekkadeci I guess it works only when printing in colour publishing online – Alex Kowal Jul 14 '22 at 19:56
  • @JimM For phrasing slurs, unlike the solid ones used exclusively for legato slurs – Alex Kowal Jul 14 '22 at 19:57
  • You fooled me for a moment: "editorial slur" would apply to any article in The New York Post. :-) . I shudder to think of that definition showing up in sheet music :-) – Carl Witthoft Jul 15 '22 at 14:27

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There's no image in the question and I don't have a copy of Dorico, but I'm guessing that the slurs look like the ones in this question: What does a line through a tie indicate?

I can't find much official information from publishers online outlining their standard editorial practice, but looking at the editions I have, at least one publisher does use this (or did recently; possibly they no longer do) - ABRSM. My copy of the Beethoven piano sonatas (Barry Cooper edition) says in the preface matter:

Editorial ties and slurs [...] are marked thus: (a picture of a slur with a small vertical line through the middle).

Other editorial additions [...] are shown by means of small type or square brackets

and indeed, there are many examples of such editorial slurs throughout. The example in the linked question doesn't have its publisher mentioned that I can see, but other aspects of the typesetting look ABRSM-y to me.

Most of the other publishers I've checked do something else - e.g. Henle and Edition Peters seem to put theirs in brackets; Bärenreiter seem to use dotted slurs (I assume they indicate phrasing slurs some other way).

(I think there are pros and cons to both options - bracketed slurs have the benefit of being consistent with other editorial markings, which are usually bracketed; however, the slurs-with-lines-through have the benefit of not taking up any extra horizontal space compared to a non-editorial slur.)

James Uffindell-Birt
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