All printed or published music requires editing, at some level, and computer music-setting forces all of us to be editors. Decisions about how to notate and design the printed page often intertwine with decisions about the music itself, and thus with the “composer’s intentions”. Performers cannot escape the obligation to familiarise themselves with issues of sources and versions, so it is the job of editors to guide them.

Hugh Macdonald was General Editor of the New Berlioz Edition, published in 32 volumes between 1967 and 2006. He has prepared new editions of a number of 19th-century French operas and is currently working on a full-length study of the stage works of Saint-Saëns.