Since Steven Killings has been kind enough to cite my comments about
REED eligibility of material, may I expand a little on what I said?
I take his point that the inclusion of "biographical" or contextual
material, as opposed to that relating to performance, would make
REED volumes much larger -- too large, in my view. Though we need
that material, and its inclusion in Lancashire is a welcome bonus, I
do not necessarily advocate its inclusion in REED volumes. A
different kind of publication may be necessary, given that REED in
its present form has problems enough. A (cheaper) supplementary
series?)
Secondly, that material and also the material that _is_ normally
eligible for inclusion would be more useful if more information were
given on what is missing. Undated items, especially, are less
precisely dated than they might be if intervening but omitted
material were more fully assessed with that end in view. This puts
a large extra onus on the editor and again, in my view, it is
perhaps unrealistic to expect it from REED as it now is. If the
chance comes for revised or expanded editions, that is an
improvement that might be considered.
In all, I feel that REED set out to do something specific, and
that that has turned out to be very useful, if not comprehensively
so. Though REED has its limits, it is surely more important to
finish the present project as it is than to change it half way
through: and the present project does set out information on the
documents so that the rest of us can search the material for what
isn't published in the REED volumes.
This is not to say that some flexibility isn't possible: clearly
it _is_, which is why Lancashire has material of a type not included
in other volumes, and clearly the details of what is or isn't
included are debated for each individual volume as necessary. It
would be interesting to hear from the REED executive what they see
as the limits of the adjustment possible within the broad outlines
of REED's current remit.
Happy New Year to all!
Richard Rastall
Dr. G. R. Rastall
Department of Music,
University of Leeds,
Leeds LS6 9JT
UK
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Tel: 0532 332581
Fax: 0532 332586
