Typos in books are ignored (except by loony people; I know about this because people used to write my mother and tell her about typos in her published books), but typos in music are discussed. Say that everyone but the tenors had a dotted eight note in measure 26. Immediately, the tenors have to count up and see whether they have enough beats in that measure, or if it’s a typo. If the count is off, they haveto confirm the typo with the director.
Last night we were singing a piece with several typos of this kind.
“That’s why we paid only 75 cents for this music,” the director joked.
“There was a shortage of dots at the time,” I added.
“I know where the dots went!” the director then crowed, pointing out that there were a lot of colons. Here’s how the words on page 6 were punctuated:
His righteousness: His righteousness:
His righteousness, His righteousness:
Okay, the colons are weird, but what about that comma? This is just weird punctuation.
Some people think that punctuation is decorative, but it is actually for communication.