Headers and Subheaders
Max. caps (roman) for JRMA and RMARC article titles, level 1 headers (and running heads). Min. caps (italics) for level 2 headers. Section headers using roman numerals are acceptable.

Footnotes
Notes should be presented as footnotes at the bottom of the page (full citation on first occurrence followed by short titles, Ibid.; no supporting list of references at the back). Email address (plus personal pronouns if desired), followed by any acknowledgements, are presented in a preliminary unnumbered note at the foot of the first page (above note 1 if it occurs on that page).

Spellings
Follow British usage: bar (not measure), catalogue (not catalog), colour (not color), connection (not connexion), disc (not disk, except in relation to computer disks), programme (not program, except in relation to software programs), semibreve (not whole note), theatre (not theater).

Italics/roman: allegro (meaning ‘quick(ly)’), etc. (tempo markings; but Allegro (roman), etc. as a movement title); crescendo; diminuendo; fin de siècle; legato, mise-en-page; piano (meaning ‘soft(ly)’), etc. (dynamics), ritornello, staccato.
No use of accents on words that are in regular English usage.
Plurals: crescendos, glissandos, librettos.

Punctuation
Use a hyphen for adjectival combinations (e.g. eighteenth-century music = music written in the eighteenth century, but note: early eighteenth-century music); and to avoid ambiguity (e.g. ‘early-music scholar’ refers to a scholar of early music; ‘early music scholar’ potentially to an early scholar of music). Partbook, folk song, cooperate, double bass, avant-garde, bar line.

Capitals
Periods/styles: Baroque, Classical, etc.
Music examples and other illustrations: use capitals and do not abbreviate (either in captions or cross-references): Example 1, Figure 1, etc.
Music forms: ABA (capital roman).

Numbers
Intervals, chords: fifth, dominant-seventh chord.
Opus numbers: Piano Sonata, op. 31, no. 3.
Composer catalogue nos: K. 387, D. 795, BWV 140, Hob. XVI 49.
Act II, Scene 3.
Time signatures: 4/4, 6/8, etc. Chords: 6–3, etc.
Bars 15–19; 3 bars after … (i.e. figures not words when referring to bars).

Musical Terms
Note values: breve, semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, demisemiquaver, hemidemisemiquaver (not whole note, half note, etc.).

Pitches: For pitch classes, use roman capitals. Keys: C major, G minor, C-major chord
Music accidentals: use symbols (C♮, E♭, F♯; not C natural, E-flat, F-sharp).
For precise identification of pitch, use the Scientific Pitch Notation system that represents middle C as C4, with the next C up being C5, the next C6, and so on; the C below middle C is C3, the one below that C2, and the one below that C1.

To reference ‘Figs’ in a music score, use ‘Rehearsal no.’ or ‘Rehearsal mark’.

Music Titles
Real titles (of operas, extended vocal works, collections, music videos, TV, films) in italics: Dido and Aeneas, Das Lied von der Erde, Il Trionfo di Dori, Structures 1a, Quaderni III, Top of the Pops, Twin Peaks, The Sopranos.
Titles which are genre names or tempo marks should be roman: Symphony no. 5 (or Fifth Symphony), Adagio and Fugue. Similarly, sections of the mass or canticles: Kyrie, Agnus Dei, Te Deum, Nunc dimittis.
Titles of single songs which are first lines or incipits should be roman, in single quotes: ‘Occhi dolci e soavi’, ‘Il est bel et bon’, ‘I saw my lady weep’.
Place nicknames within quotation marks: ‘Emperor’ Quartet, etc.
Masses: Mass in D, Missa Papae Marcelli, Mass Gloria tibi trinitas.
Words such as scherzo, minuet, finale, etc. should have an initial capital only if used as a movement title

Capitalize the main words in English-language titles (including both parts of a hyphenated compound). Follow standard practice in foreign languages: French, capitalize from definite article through to the first noun (as in New Hart’s Rules, p. 214), and apply accents to all capitals where applicable; Italian, first word capitalized, then lower case except names; German, adjectives lower case. Examples: La Demoiselle élue, Le nozze di Figaro, Die glückliche Hand. For transliterations, please refer to standard sources for the given language, and reference the system selected.

Further Information
In case of doubt or if further assistance is required, please refer to the Assistant Editor of JRMA and RMARC, Claire Taylor-Jay: info@clarionediting.co.uk.

Last updated: January 2025

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