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What should music score annotations look like? Should I show every chord or only the important ones? What other music techniques do I annotate?

I am annotating it as part of a musical analysis. The annotated score will be used as evidence in my analysis. I am analysing everything, harmony, melody, rhythm, texture, and form. It is for a musicology analysis scholarship at a high school level in the NCEA system (If that is pertinent).

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    This needs more detail. Annotations serve many different purposes, so to best answer your question, some additional information about how the annotated score will be used is important.
    – Aaron
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 20:58
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    Thanks for adding some explanation! There's still a lot that's unclear, though. There can be lots of kinds of analysis—formal, metric, rhythmic, melodic, harmonic. Since you mention chords, it's probably harmonic, but that still doesn't dictate how detailed your "supporting evidence" be. Is this for an assignment? Maybe the teacher has a preference?
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 21:42
  • It really depends what aspects of the score you are attempting to analyse.
    – Elements In Space ♦
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 21:53
  • These updates are very helpful. What level of scholarship? High School? Graduate School? ...?
    – Aaron
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 22:24
  • This? www2.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/subjects/scholarship-subjects/music
    – Aaron
    Commented Sep 1, 2023 at 7:53

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This appears to be an NZ Scholarship Music. They ask for:

A comprehensive study, along with an annotated score, of a substantial musical work. [...]

  • an examination of FIVE musical elements deemed by the candidate to be most significant

  • a critical discussion outlining the musical contribution of each element [...]

Presumably the annotations in the score will be those relevant to the elements you have chosen to examine, and at the level of detail appropriate for your discussion.

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  • I was planning to add my own answer but it would just be an expansion of this, so maybe you'd like to elaborate: No, you don't have to mark "everything." When you make some analytical point, and support it with a musical example, you only need to mark as much as needed to illustrate your point. A common mistake in harmonic analysis is to label every single vertical "chord," which sometimes are just made of passing tones and are not really functional harmonies.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Sep 1, 2023 at 12:55
  • Also, a score that's marked with harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, textural, and formal analysis might wind up hard to read. You might need some kind of color-coding or something...
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Sep 1, 2023 at 12:57

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