In
The Critical Editing of Music (1996) James Grier called Georg Feder's
Musikphilologie (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1987) the most important contribution to date on textual criticism in music and the only one that considers the full range of critical issues in editing (Grier, p. 14). Pendragon Press's edition of Feder's
Music Philology now makes available in English translation this essential, intellectually engaging but concise discussion of the complex and multi-faceted tasks in traditional scholarly editing of music.
From the Middle Ages to the present, music has been written down and disseminated in notated form. In evaluating music notation, philological methods have been used more and more. These methods come from linguistic disciplines and are linked with specifically musical traditions and subjects. Starting with the relationships of music and language, tradition and understanding, work and text, Feder describes the fundamentals of music philology and its tasks. In addition to the musical sources themselves, theoretical and historical sources enable the critical study of questions about authenticity, dating, origin, and dissemination.