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Editorial Guidelines

The University of Texas also has their own style guide which we do consult for abbreviations, capitalizations, and academic titles. We have also developed our nomenclature for programs from sources such as the New York Philharmonic. 

Academic Degrees and Majors

Spell out and use the lowercase: bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctor’s degree or doctorate. You can receive a doctorate OR your doctor’s degree, but NOT your doctoral degree. To abbreviate degrees, use periods after all the letters: B.A., M.S., Ph.D., M.S.I.A., B.F.A. (with the exception of MBA). This is an archaic standard that unfortunately the University dictates.  

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Right: He’s an English major.

The University of Texas at Austin

The correct reference is to use “The University of Texas at Austin” the first time you refer to the title of the university in text. Note that ‘The’ should be capitalized Upon second reference and thereafter, use “the university,” lowercase. 

Academic Departments

Capitalize the names of departments except when used in a person’s title. 

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Right: She’s a professor in the Physics Department.

Italicization

The rules for italicization in classical music are often times somewhat arbitrary and obtuse, and can be especially confusing with newer works that blur lines between generic titles and more specific titles. With the advent of modern desktop publishing many styling rules are helpful for body text, but are not necessary in a program list, and so we have abandoned them to simplify things.  

The general rule in a program listing is not to italicize any titles, except in a few cases: 

Italicize any programmatic title or nickname that is added to a generic title. 

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  Wrong: Ludwig van Beethoven             Piano Concerto No. 5 in E Flat Major, Op. 73, “Emperor” 

The rules for body text in program notes are much different. There are three rules for italicizations that we have adopted at the Butler School for body text.

  1. Do not italicize any generic titles.

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Right: Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62 

Capitalization

English (headline style capitalization): Capitalize the first word and all subsequent words except articles, conjunctions and prepositions (unless they begin or end a title or subtitle). 

...

Right: trans. Jane Roe

Wrong: Arranged John Doe

Composer Names

Composer names in program listings should be spelled out completely, with two exceptions.  Bach and Mozart may be shortened to two initials, last names, as it has become a de facto standard.

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Right: Ludwig van Beethoven

Movements

Do not italicize any movements (and do not number if performed completely and in order).

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                  IV. Allegro

Thematic Catalog Abbreviations

Opus numbers should be styled as Op. Most other thematic catalog citations used in the titles of works comprise a capital letter followed by a period, a space, and a number. E.g.: K. 475, D. 950. The exceptions are: BWV (Bach) RV (Vivaldi) TWV (Telemmann) WoO (Werke ohne Opus, numerous composers, including Beethoven and Brahms) E.g., BWV 565, RV 269, TWV 55:C3, WoO 45

Dates

When program notes are not present, the composer should be set in non-bold typeface directly below the composer name and not contain parentheses.  

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Right: Klavierstücke, Op. 119 (1893)

Diacritical Marks

All names and non-English words should receive careful attention for the correct placement of diacritical marks (or diacritics): Á à Â ä Å å Æ æ á ç É È é è Í Ì í ì î ñ ó Ò ò ö ø ß Ú ú ù ü 

Hyphens and Dashes

It’s important to use the correct dashes in their correct setting —hyphens and dashes look similar, but they’re not interchangeable. The hyphen (-) is the smallest of these marks. It has three uses.

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