Below is about a month's work of off-and-on sourcing work on the current state of capitalization of prepositions (and a few other things) in the titles of published works/compositions, in English-language usage. Despite the labor, it is not complete, as I just obtained another large pile of style guides (about 20 of them) to go through, but it includes most of the major ones already, and is broad enough to be a valid survey from which to work on the article's coverage of this subtopic.
The material is divided into several sections:
The top-5 style manuals on English usage
Style manuals in favor of lowercasing all prepositions ("down style", almost entirely academic)
Those in favor of the "five-letter rule" compromise style (mostly general-audience style guides, with some academic and journalistic overlap)
Those in favor of the more extreme "four-letter rule" ("up style", almost entirely journalism and public relations manuals, with only one exception)
After this are two special sections on:
Titles of musical works, for which there are many specialist guides
The use of like as a preposition or subordinating conjunction in titles of works, the most frequently controversial case.
The next challenge is going to be distilling this into some concise encyclopedic prose, and deciding which sources to actually cite in the article. The sourcing proves three key facts for outlining this:
There are in fact three demonstrable styles.
They are rather sharply divided into academic, general-purpose, and journo/PR registers of usage.
They differ only in treatment of prepositions, with other conflicts (e.g. over treatment of coordinating conjunctions or possessive) being rare and essentially "fringe" style disputes in the real world.
I first list the five most dominant style guides in English, and quote them in detail. These are: The Chicago Manual of Style, the major American academic and nonfiction book publishing guide; Garner's Modern English Usage, the most comprehensive US–British usage dictionary (formerly US-focused but recently internationalized); New Hart's Rules, the main British academic guide; Fowler's Modern English Usage, the long-standing British general-audience guide; the The Associated Press Stylebook, the major North American journalism style guide (there is British equivalent, as the UK press is stylistically fractious).
After this section, I organize the rest of the research by which of the three main styles are being recommended, and include some Canadian, etc., guides, as well as topically specialized ones.
The Big Five:
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (2010); Chicago U. Press; ISBN 978-0-226-10420-1. At "Titles of Works: Capitalization, Punctuation, and Italics – Principles of headline-style capitalization" § 8.157, pp. 448–49: "1. Capitalize the first and last words in titles and subtitles (but see rule 7), and capitalize all other major words (nouns pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions–but see rule 4). 2. Lowercase the articles the, a, and an. 3. Lowercase propositions, regardless of length, except when they are used adverbially or adjectively (up in Look Up'', down in Turn Down, on in The On Button, to in Come To, etc.) or when they compose part of a Latin expression used adjectively or adverbially (De Facto, In Vitro, etc.). 4. Lowercase the conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor. 5. Lowercase to not only as a preposition (rule 3) but also as part of an infinitive verb (to Run, to Hide, etc.), and lowercase as in any grammatical function. 6. Lowercase the part of a proper name that would be lowercased in text, such as de or von. 7. Lowercase the second part of a species name, such as fulvescens in Acipenser fulvescens, even if it is the last word in a title or subtitle." Examples provided (§. 8.158, p. 449) even include the "Four Theories concerning the Gospel according to Mark". Chicago's rule on this is not a recent change; the exclusion of prepositions from the list of words to capitalize in English-language titles dates to at least the 11th ed., in 1948 (pp. 38–39).
Garner's Modern American Usage, 3rd ed. (2009): "Capitalize the first and last words and all other words except for articles, conjunctions, and short prepositions (usually fewer than five letters)", p. 132. Update this to a 2016 Garner's Modern English Usage citation.
Harts New Rules, 2nd ed. (2014), Ann Waddingham (ed.), R. M. Ritter (previous ed.); Oxford U. Press; ISBN 978-0-19957002-7. At "Work titles in text: Capitalization", § 8.2.3: "The traditional style is to give maximal capitalization to the titles of works published in English, capitalizing the first letter of the first word and of all other important words (for works in other languages ...). Nouns, adjectives (other than possessives), and verbs are usually capitalized; articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are usually left uncapitalized. Exactly which words should be capitalized in a particular title is a matter for individual judgement....", even suggesting that title length and other concerns could be involved. It then explains sentence case as the alternative to "the traditional style" which it also calls the "full capitalization" style (and no that does mean "Do It Like A Dude"; they provide no examples in the entire section suggesting capitalization to that level. At any rate, NHR is essentially declining to set a rule, and leaving it all up to house, even personal, style. A glimpse of Oxford's own house style is visible in the preference to downcase possessives (hers, etc.), a style reflected in few if any other style guides.
At "Musical works: Popular music and traditional songs" § 8.6.2, pp. 153–154: "Song titles in English are set in roman type with quotation marks, capitalized according to the style adopted for titles in general". Examples given include In the Land of Grey and Pink, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", and "Born to Run" from the album Born to Run. Traditional songs, whose titles are simply their first lines, may be given in sentence case. For classical compositions, NHR defers to and just summarizes specialist works on this complicated topic. (This disconnect between offering no guidance in general and then deferring to extremely persnickety rules for classical, is unusual and out of character in the context of the rest of NHR.) For film/TV/digital (p. 152) and visual arts (p. 162) works, with English names, they recommend the "full capitalization" applied to English book titles, i.e. capitalizing "important words".
Conclusion on the current edition of Hart's: It does in fact give advice, against capitalization of short proposition, but then it basically contradicts itself and says it's up to individual whim, and then goes back to asserting that there are rules and that songs/albums should follow those of books/journals. This is likely a result of failures to coordinate between the old staff of Hart's, and whoever was working with Ritter (who is now deceased), and the incoming editor, Waddingham, plus rushed editing that failed to reconcile the goals of recommending academic usage (the main purpose of the Oxford guide in every edition) with the secondary one of describing observed use in other contexts, such as journalism and informal writing. They've mixed prescriptive and descriptive roles in a way that needs copyediting on their end for the passage to make much sense.
The previous, clearer edition, under a different title, actually did give advice, and (not being brand new) has been used as an influential reference for some time. It is The Oxford Guide to Style (2002; republished in 2003 as part of Oxford Style Manual); R. M. Ritter, Oxford U. Press; ISBN 978-0-860564-5. At "Capitalization and treatment of names: Titles and subtitles of works" § 4.1.8 (pp. 77–79, in the OSM printing): "Capitalize the first word and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, but generally not articles, conjunctions, or short prepositions." Examples include Gone with the Wind. Allows that "very short titles" may look better with additional capitalization, e.g. "All About Eve". For musical and other works, it is consistent with the later edition, though without so much Classical-related detail.
Add a cite to the pre-NHR final edition of Hart's Rules while you're at it; this is referred to in the Fowler's section.
Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage: If anyone is thinking Fowler's is going to back them on things like "Do It Like A Dude", they'd be wrong. Both recent editions of Fowler's totally consistently present titles of cited works with lower-cased short prepositions and indefinite/definite articles, in the "capitals" section and throughout the rest of the content. The new Fowler's (ed. Butterfield, 2015) cites NHR (presumably the current 2014 ed.) at § "capitals" (p. 132), but it cites NHR own section on capitalisation in general (pp. 88–100), not the titles of works section, and Butterfield does not have a separate entry on capitalization of titles of works. Neither did the earlier Burchfield edition, Fowler's Modern English Usage (2004, pp. 128–129), which cited the original Hart's pp. 8–14 – that's pre-OGS/OSM, when it was quite prescriptive about not capitalising prepositions.
Note: For an overview of the problems inherent in OUP's decision to mix-and-match prescriptive and descriptive approaches in the same volume, see this detailed New York Times piece on the matter [1] (it's about the Burchfield edition of Fowler's, but that was produced by Burchfield [now also deceased and replaced with a new editor] during the same time as Ritter's work on what had been Hart's, with the exact same goal, outlook, mixed intent, and mixed results). (NB: No, "maximal capitalization" does not mean "Do It Like A Dude"; the material that immediately follows that clearly excludes this interpretation, and all the examples given, in all editions and all sections, are clearly against this interpretation, e.g. "In the Land of Grey and Pink".)
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2015 annual ed.): "Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunictions of four or more letters", p. 59. Despite its brevity on the point, the AP Stylebook is the primary vector of the four-letter rule, though it is also advocated by many other press organizations in the US and UK, as detailed in the section on that style, below.
This is "high academe" style, as typically used in academic journals, though it can also be found occasionally in more general works (e.g. the UN Editorial Manual, and Cooper Hill Stylebook).
Here are a dozen noteworthy examples:
Chicago Manual of Style, as noted in the first section, above.
The Oxford Guide to Style a.k.a. Oxford Style Manual (but allowing stylistic leeway for very short titles), as noted in the first section, above.
Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 8th ed. (2014) details to be added in next set of edits.
A Canadian Writer's Reference (4th ed., "Capitalization: M3-c", pp. 305–306): Capitalize the first, last, and all major words in titles and subtitles of works such as books, articles, songs, and online documents. In both titles and subtitles, major words such as nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs should be capitalized. Minor words such as articles, prepositions,, and coordinating conjunctions are not capitalized unless they are the first or last word of a title or subtitle."
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed., 2008; New York: Modern Language Association; "Basics of Scholarly Writing: Capitalization – 3.7.1, English" pp. 109–110): "In the title or subtitle of a work, capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words, including those that follow hyphens in compound terms. Therefore, capitalize the following parts of speech: Nouns ... Pronouns ... Verbs ... Adjectives ... Adverbs ... Subordinating conjunctions ... [compressed from list with examples]. Do not capitalize the following parts of speech when they fall in the middle of a title: Articles ... Prepositions ... Coordinating conjunctions ... The to in infinities ... [compressed from list with examples]."
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed., 2009; "3.6. Titles of Works in the Research Paper: 3.6.1. Capitalization and Punctuation", pp. 86–87): Same as MLA Style Manual, naturally.
MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Editors (3rd ed., 2013; "Capitals: 6.4, Titles of Books and Other Writings", p. 40): "In English titles the initial letters of the first word and of all nouns pronouns (except the relative 'that'), adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions are capitalized, but those of articles, possessive determiners ('my', etc.), prepositions, and the co-ordinating conjunctions ... are not."
United Nations Editorial Manual Online (online, 2014; [2]): "Initial capital letters are used for: ... All words in the titles of books, periodicals and United Nations publications except articles, conjunctions and prepositions" (except as first word of title).
Berghahn US Style Guide (2014; p. 1): "Do not capitalize articles ..., coordinate conjunctions ... and prepositions (through, against, between, without, since, etc.)." UK version has the same wording (except "Do not" is "Don't").
Turabian: Explicitly follows Chicago style (§ Section 8.188—8.192); Turabian is a student guide for how to write Chicago-compliant papers. No need to quote it here, since it's just rehash.
American Sociological Association Style Guide (5th ed., 2014; at location 756 in Kindle version, "2.3. Capitalization"): "In the titles of books and articles, capitalize the first word in the title or subtitle and all works except prepositions regardless of length (of, onto, between, through)".
The Cooper Hill Stylebook: A Guide to Writing and Revision (2nd ed., 2005; Gregory Heyworth, Rosette Liberman; "American Language Sourcebooks" ser.; New Haven, Connecticut: Cooper Hill Press; "70. Citing titles in text: Capitalizing words in titles", pp. 371–372): "Always capitalize the first and last words and main words of all titles and subtitles. Also capitalize in accordance with parts of speech. ... Not capitalized parts of speech: articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, to in infinitives, subordinating conjunctions ...'The Land between the Oceans'". This is unusual in lower-casing subordinate conjunctions (of the other guides checked, only Ritter's Oxford books (before Waddington's NHR) also had this "rule".
This is the compromise style between academic practice, which is unfamiliar to many, and the capitalize-everything-in-sight marketing an journalism style (below). It is most often found in general-purpose style guides, but can also be observed in some specialist ones, including legal and even journalistic. Add at least Penguin Handbook and a few other missing major guides before running with this.
This is an incomplete list; I have around 20 more generalist works like the to go through
Fowler's Modern English Usage: Does not state a rule, but clearly illustrates that it is following this practices in the examples is provides, both in the section on titles, and throughout, as noted in the first section, above.
Garner's Modern English Usage: as noted in the first section, above.
Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style ("Capitalization: B. Initial Capitals", pp. 56–57): "Put articles ... as well as conjunctions ... and prepositions having four or fewer letters ... in lower case. Capitalize those having five or more letters".
McGraw Hill Handbook of Grammar and Usage ("Capitalization of Titles", p. 289): "All nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in the title are capitalized ... articles (a/an/the), prepositions, conjunctions, and the to in infinitives are not capitalized ... (though some style books recommend that preposition[s] longer than four letters be capitalized".
New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage ("Names of Things: Literature, Periodicals, and Entertainment", pp. 216–219): "[A]ll nouns, pronouns, verb (no matter how short), adverbs, adjectives, and conjunctions that introduce subordinate clauses are capitalized in titles .... Usually lowercased are the to of infinitives ..., articles, articles, coordinate conjunctions, and prepositions of four or fewer letters."
Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook (2nd ed., Wiley, "Capitalization", p. 243): "In titles of publications, documents, musical compositions, radio and television programs, motion pictures, and works of art, you should capitalize the first word, the last word, and all other words except a, and, the, and propositions and conjunctions that are one syllable or that contain fewer than five letters: Gone with the Wind ...".
The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style "§ 2, Capitalization": "The modern trend is toward less capitalization." (3rd ed. revd., 2013; Garern; West; p. 61). "User lowercase unless a rule calls for capitalization. ... Although styles of capitalization have varied over time, the prevailing trend among professional editors is toward a down-style—one in which words are capitalized sparingly. ... Down-style is easier to read: it emphasizes only words that require emphasis, according to standards set by rule." (p. 61). "Consistency. Make decisions about capitalization based on logic and established conventions. ... Once you have decide whether to capitalize, be consistent within each piece of writing and its related documents." (p. 62).
UPI Stylebook and Guide to Newswriting (4th ed., 2004; Herndon, Virginia: Capital Books / United Press International; "composition titles", pp. 55–56): "In titles of books, movies, plays, poems, programs, songs, works of art, etc., capitalize the first word and all succeeding words except articles and short (four letters or less) conjunctions and prepositions." Note that this is unusual in three ways: a) It's a major press organization not siding with the four-letter rule; b) it does not have the "capitalize the last word" rule; c) it does not distinguish between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
The divergent rule to capitalize, in titles of works, all prepositions that are four letters or longer is found only in journalism and public relations (marketing) style sources, with only a single except found to date.
Style-guide sources that advocate the four-letter rule:
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2015 annual ed.): "Capitalize the principal words, including prepositions and conjunictions of four or more letters", p. 59; as noted in the first section, above.
NYT (pp. 51–52, 320): "[C]apitalize all nouns, pronouns and verbs, and all other words of four or more letters." It provides a list of shorter words it would also capitalize, including several prepositions that are often used in other ways, and would even capitalize "Nor"; these house style rules are widely divergent even from the rest of the news-media publishing world. Same goes for their use of quotation marks instead of italics for titles of books and other major works (p. 41, et al.)
The Wall Street Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage: At "capitalization", p. 37: "Compositions: Capitalize the main words in the name of books, movies, plays, poems, songs, radio and televisions programs, and works of art. Generally follow the rules under headline capitalization. See also composition titles." At "composition titles", p. 52: "Capitalize the principle words, including prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters." Applies to anthems, operas, lectures and speeches, as well as previous list. Like all other sources, capitalize first and last word regardless. At "headline capitalization", pp. 112–113 : "Generally lowercase a, an, and, a, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, of, off, on, or, out, the, to (as a preposition or infinitive), up, and yet (as a conjunction). But capitalize them they they start a line or when the propositions are an integral part of the verb .... Capitalize the propositions when they are used as adjectives or adverbs .... Capitalize prepositions and conjunctions that end a headline or ... segment".
National Geographic Style Manual (online, 2016; [3]): "Generally capitalize all words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) except conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer, articles, and the to of infinitives unless aesthetically displeasing."
Guardian and Observer style guide (online, 2016; "titles" [4]): "Words in titles take initial caps except for a, and, at, for, from, in, of, on, the, to (except in initial position or after a colon)". This is weird: They would cap all four-letter prepositions, except one, for no apparent reason.
No rule is found in various other news sources's style guides, but their own usage typically illustrates a four-letter rule, e.g. when they write From Russia With Love.
Gregg Reference Manual (10th ed., 2005; "Capitalization: 360, Titles of Literary and Artistic Works; Headings", p. 116): "capitalize ali words with four or more letters" (emphasis in original). This business-English handbook is one of the few non-journalism sources that supports the four-letter rule, but it is intended for communications and business students (i.e. marketing, advertising, and PR, i.e. journalistic style all over again).
The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing (rev. ed., 1997; "Capitalization: 4.29, Publications and works of art", pp. 82–83): "In English titles of books, articles, ..., capitalize all words except articles, conjunctions of fewer than four letters, and prepositions of fewer than four letters. ... Words that are normally prepositions are capitalized when they help form another part of speech". As with Gregg, this book is aimed at public-relations writing, which largely derived from AP style.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed, 2007; Washington, DC: [American Psychological Association|APA]]; "Capitalization: 3.13. Major Words in Titles and Headings", p. 95): "[M]ajor words in titles of books and articles within the body of the paper. Conjunctions, articles, and short prepositions are not considered major words. Hoever, capitalize all words of four letters or more." This is the only academic guide I've seen so far that has this rule, as as this sourcing pile shows, I have really been looking.
Plenty of style guides simply never address the question, or only say something vague like "short prepositions" without defining it. I did look in them carefully, including multiple sections where it might be hidden, and making use of their ToCs and indexes.
I found over a dozen like this:
The Times Style and Usage Guide (online, 2015, no longer available except at Wayback; "capitalisation" [5]) – doesn't address it, nor at "Titles" special section (all about people) [6]
Telegraph Style Book (online, 2016; "Capping up" [7]; "Names and titles" [8]
Financial Times seems to skip it.
The Economist Style Guide (online, 2016, "Capitals" [9]) – doesn't mention it, nor at "Titles"
The BBC News Styleguide (2003, from BBC Training & Development) – doesn't mention
BBC News style guide (online, 2016; BBC Academy website for journalism students; "Grammar, spelling and punctuation: Capitals", [10]) – oddly is silent on the matter
Elements of International English, never mentioned
Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (1989) – I have searchable copy. Did not find it in later ed., either.
Writing for Scholarly Journals: Publishing in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (U. of Glasgow, 2007)
European Commission English Style Guide (7th Ed., 2011, rev'd. 2015): "normally take a capital on each main word".
United States Government Printing Office Style Manual (2008; "Capitalization Rules: 3.36, Titles of publications, papers, documents, acts, laws, etc.", p. 38): "the first
word and all important words are capitalized."
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing House Style Guide (2007) – never mentioned
The Penguin Dictionary of American Style and Usage (2000, Paul W. Lovinger): Not addressed in detail; just says short prepositions are not capitalized, without defining "short".
A few handbooks acknowledge the dispute without taking a side, because they're "how to comply with different styles" guides intended for editors or students, and their intent is identifying styles, not recommending a particular one.
The four examples I could find:
New Hart's Rules: It is essentially self-contradictory, first "usually" preferring lowercase, then saying it's really up to individual whim; discussed in detail in the first section, above.
The Blue Book of Grammar and punctuation (11th ed, "Capitalization: Rule 16a", pp. 54–55): "Composition titles: which words should be capitalized...? This is a vexing matter, and policies vary." Outlines the various approaches, mostly accurately, noting: "The major bone of contention is prepositions", suggesting that the four-letter rule is primarily an AP Stylebook thing, while the five-letter rule and the no-prepositions rules are attributed to multiple sources each. The section concludes: "Pick a policy and be consistent."
The Copyeditor's Handbook (3rd ed, at "Titles of Works", pp. 160–161: "Regarding prepositions ... there are contending conventions. Chicago recommends lowercasing prepositions regardless of length, some publishers use a 'four-letter rule,' and others use a 'five-letter rule'". Their examples can be compressed into a single case, with following respective results:
I'd Love to Stay with You until Dawn
I'd Love to Stay With You Until Dawn
I'd Love to Stay with You Until Dawn
Form and Style: Research Papers, Reports, Theses (Carole Slade, Robert Perrin; 13th ed, 2007; Cengage/Wadsworth): This is just a student guide for how to comply with Chicago, MLA, and APA styles, so it will not prefer Chicago and MLA (all-prepositions-lowercase) vs. APA (four-letter rule) style.
I singled this topic out in particular because there are number of style guides specifically addressing it, and a dispute about the matter had erupted at WT:MOSCAPS, and frequently. I do not believe it is appropriate to devote editorial research time to try to "source the Wikipedia:Manual of Style" like an article; that's an omphaloskeptical endeavor that does nothing to build the encyclopedia, but is just pointless WP:DRAMA. However, this source material can certainly be used to improve this article, so "two birds"!
According to Western Ontario University (among others, I just have this handy): "Humanistic writing on music usually follows the Turabian guide (which is based on The Chicago Manual of Style)" [11]; as one would expect, a large proportion of house style sheets on music simply defer to Chicago/Turabian on such matters, whether they cite C/T directly or not. Some just spell out capitalization rules which match C/T, others do cite them. I can find only one single music-related style guide that recommends AP-style journalism's four-letter rule, anywhere, and it's a self-contradictory wreck. However, there are some paper books on the topic I have not tracked down yet, as noted below.
Music-specific sources on title capitalization:
I'll lead the source pile with the funny one. Music Metadata Style Guide ("Final" version, August 2014; Music Business Association[12]) Does call for the AP-compatible four-letters-or-more style (which makes sense; it's a marketing style guide, and marketing and journalism use the same basic style rules). However, the document totally contradicts itself on following published title style. On p. 10, it says to "correctly" spell titles which "match the cover art" (something that is often literally impossible, even in with CSS3), then on p. 20 it says that artist, album or track names like "YOUNG AMERICANS", "the downward spiral", and "a TIMe to love" are "incorrect" for being "in all capitals, all lowercase, or random casing", which was what they demanded be mimicked, on p. 10 (and, yes, the cover art does in fact say "the downward spiral" [13]). This obviously is not ready for prime time, and wasn't subjected to even basic proofreading or sanity checking; it can't be treated as a reliable source, and I can find no evidence that, years after release, anyone takes it seriously. Even aside from internal cognitive dissonance like that, it mandates various prescriptive/proscriptive rules about a variety of nomenclatural things that do not match actual practice in the industry it's attempting to regulate, and in every other sentence it violates basic English rules, e.g. capitalizing words like "album", and genres, and even the word "genre". At any rate, it concedes on p. 21, about the four-letter rule: "NOTE: This is not consistent across all retailers, so consult with your Digital Merchant [sic] on their specific requirements for capitalization." Next, it wants to impose its capitalization rules on non-English titles, an idea with which zero other style guides of any kind agree; they all call for following the linguistic conventions of the language in question. Then it contradicts itself again only a page later, and gives alternative capitalization rules on a per-language basis for a few languages (just nine). Regardless, the MMSG is only intended for metadata in digital music files, and has no relation to general publishing. As of February 2016, it does not seem to have have any impact even in its intended market. As one example, TuneCore's advice for formatting track and album names for iTunes releases advises the five-letter rule.[14]; see [ this thread] for additional "ground truth" on the matter. PS: Weirdly, MMSG cites the Chicago Manual of Style on p. 21, as if that agreed with anything this would-be standard says. Also weirdly, this is the 2014-08 "FINAL" version, a revision of the 2013-10 original [15], so they've had plenty of time to realize and correct these glaring faults, but seem to have done nothing but changed the graphical layout.
Writing About Music: A Style Sheet, 3rd ed. (2014); D. Kern Holoman; U. of California Press, ISBN 78-0-520-28153-0 [16]. "Capitalization Schemes" § 1.20, pp. 10–11: "In English capitalize the nouns and other major words as described in CMS [Chicago Manual of Style 16th ed] 8.157; in German .... The following are typical examples: ... Rhapsody in Blue". Remember that Chicago says "Lowercase propositions, regardless of length". At "Lowercase and Uppercase § 2.33, p. 32: "In general, use lowercase letters in preference to uppercase."
"Journal of Music Theory Style Guide" (April 2014); Duke U. Press [17]: "For titles in English, capitalize the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, that, etc.). Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions (regardless of length). The to in infinitives and the word as in any function are lowercased."
"SIUC School of Music Guide to Some Music-Specific Issues in Writing" (January 2009; Southern Illinois U. – Carbondale [18]): Specifically follows Turabian (i.e. Chicago) and Wingell.
"Style Sheet for Sacred Music" [journal] (13 May, 2008, MusicaSacra.com, Church Music Association of America [19]): "Lowercase articles, coordinate conjunctions, 'to' in infinitives, and prepositions regardless of length, unless they are the first or last words of the title or subtitle." Cites Chicago.
"JSCM Style Sheet" (Bruce Gustafson, 8 November 2012, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, p. 9): "English Titles. Capitalize all words except coordinating conjunctions and prepositions"; cites Chicago.
"American Music Style Sheet" (27 July 2006, U. of Illinois Pr.): Explicitly follows Chicago "for all style decisions".
"Cataloging Sheet Music: Guidelines for Use with AACR2 and the MARC Format" (Lois Schultz, Sarah Jean Shaw, Working Group Sheet Music Cataloging Guidelines, Bibliographic Control Committee; 2003; "Technical Reports" series, no. 28; Middleton, Wisconsin: Music Library Association / Oxford, UK: Scarecrow Pr; ISBN 978-0810847507 [20]): Follows Chicago style for titles; example: "There's Something about a Soldier" (p. x).
"Notes Style Sheet (8 January 2016; ed. Deborah Campana; Music Library Association): "Do not capitalize articles ..., prepositions ..., coordinating conjunctions .., the 'to' in infinitives". Relies on Chicago and MLA.
"Citing Music Sources in Your Essay and Bibliography" (Lisa Rae Philpott, 20 October 2010; London, Ontario: The University of Western Ontario [21]): Does not state a rule, but illustrates lowercase for four-letter prepositions: "Schumann's Scenes from Childhood" (p. 2).
Music Theory Spectrum, "Instructions to Authors" (2016, Oxford Journals [22]): Explicitly defers to Chicago.
"A Guide for the Preparation of Music Papers" (eds. J. Kent Williams, Elizabeth L. Keathley; 2011; Greensboro: University of North Carolina [23]): Defers to Turabian (i.e. Chicago).
"Writing for Music" (2011; University of North Carolina – Wilmington): Defers to Turabian (i.e. Chicago) and Holoman (i.e. Chicago again).
"Style: A Brief Guide for Music Students" (2010; School of Music, Trinity College Dublin): Cites: MLA, Oxford/Hart's (as of 1990–2005), Chicago/Turabian/Holoman, MHRA, Yale U. Press manuscript preparation guidelines (which itself doesn't address the issue [24]; defers on p. 5 to Chicago), Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves (which just rehashes Chicago), and two obsolete works, Rules of Printed English (1970), and Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers (3rd ed., 1992; this is now Butcher's Copy-editing, 4th ed. pub'd. in 2006, and worth adding to my get-list).
Music Research: A Handbook (Laurie Sampsel; 2013; ISBN: 9780199797127): Neutral; defers to Chicago, and MLA, and APA (the first two use academic style, the latter the four-letter rule).
"A Guide to Completing the Music Education Thesis" (Frank Abrahams, Patrick K. Schmidt; June 2007; Lawrence, New Jersey: Rider University): Neutral; defers to Chicago/Turabian, or Form and Style (covers the same plus MLA), but also APA, depending on content/focus.
A Handbook for Preparing Graduate Papers in Music (J. David Boyle, Richard K. Fiese, Nancy Zavac; Halcyon Press Ltd.; 2nd ed., 2004; ISBN 9781931823142 [25]): Neutral; defers to Turabian (Chicago), but also APA.
A Guide to Library Research in Music (Pauline Shaw Bayne; 2008; Scarecrow Press; ISBN 978-0810861480): Does not address the question (or none of its content as indexed by Google Books does, anyway [26]).
New Zealand School of Music Composition & Orchestration Style Guide (Michael Norris; February 2013 [27]): Does not address the question.
Some paper publications I don't have immediate access to, and have not checked yet:
How to Write About Music (Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan; 2015; Bloomsbury Academic Press). This isn't a style guide in the rules sense, but a sampler of modern music writing, and pro tips on how to do it well.
A Style and Usage Guide to Writing About Music, Thomas Donahue, Scarecrow Press, 2014 (2010), ISBN 9780810874329.
A Short Guide to Writing about Music (Jonathan D. Bellman, 2007; ISBN: 0321187911)
How to Write About Music: The RILM Manual of Style (ed. James R. Cowdery; 2nd ed., 2006; New York: Répertoire Internationale de Littérature Musicale)
Irvine's Writing About Music (Demar B. Irvine; 3rd ed; 2003; ed. Mark A. Radice; Amadeus Press).
Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide (Richard Wingell; 3rd ed., 2002; Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
A Handbook for Preparing Graduate Papers in Music (J. David Boyle, Richard K. Fiese, Nancy Zarac; 2001; ISBN: 0970605463).
Introduction to Research in Music (Robert Wingell and Silvia Herzog; 2000; Pearson).
Words and Music (Eugene Helm, Albert T. Luper; Hackensack, New Jersey: Joseph Boonin Press, 1971). Obsolete.
I have singled this out because like, and the often synonymous as, are frequently confused as to how to treat them in titles of works, b. Like, even as a proposition, has multiple meanings. Various definitions may be prepositional or conjunctive depending on construction, and are difficult for non-linguists to distinguish. This means that capitalization of titles of works can be disputed under the "four-letter rule" in many cases of titles with like (or Like) in them. This is an encyclopedia-worthy, albeit minor, subtopic, so here's enough material to work with in addressing it, and it is something we could actually tackle at an article on the world like itself:
The three classes of like usage as preposition or conjunction:
Several common uses of like can usually be substituted with or for "as" in the same construction:
'In the manner of', 'in the same way as', 'similarly to', 'in a way appropriate to/for' (used for comparison with something general, often in the form of suggestions, commands, or requests): "We have to approach this like professionals." "Don't act like a baby!" "You can use it like a mirror." Some sources classify it as a preposition or a conjunction, depending on sentence,[1] or purely as a preposition.[2][3]
'In the [same] way that' (often informal or colloquial[3] when used with like instead of as): "You just do your job, like I'll do mine." "Like I warned, it's getting very cold." "Do like I tell you." "Just like I suspected, the cats did it." "You can't expect me to think exactly like you do." Classified as a conjunction.[2][3][4] These usually have as in formal writing. Some colloquial constructions cannot substitute as without adjustment, e.g. removal of what from "Like what usually happens, I fell asleep halfway through the movie."
'with the appearance of', 'pretending to be' (limited almost entirely to costuming): She dressed like a pirate for the costume party. classified as a preposition.[4] Superficially similar constructions of this sort outside the masquerading context cannot swap the words like and as in Modern English ("I look like a rock star tonight." "She serves as the acting director.")
Two other like uses can technically be replaced with as, but those forms are archaic and not widely used, with like almost always being found instead:
'difficult to distinguish from', 'to the same degree as' (metaphoric comparison): "They were like sisters." "They must fly like the wind." Classified as a preposition.[2][3] This usage can be replaced with as in academic or biblical writing, and is also sometimes encountered in the latter as like as, like unto, or like to (which are classified as adverbials[2][3]).
'Such as', 'for example' (Not intrinsically comparative; often follows a potentially optional comma, the omission of which may change the meaning. May provide an example or a list of them, usually not preceded by a colon; if one is used, the comma is not.): "Canines, like dogs, wolves, and foxes, tend to be omnivorous." "I want Mexican food[,] like chiles rellenos and tacos." "Madagascar is not a superpower like the US or China." Classified as a preposition.[2][1]
The as form of this construction is only found in academic writing, and usually limited to footnotes, parentheticals, or other highly compressed material; and this form uses both comma and colon: "(Only easterly Triturus species, as: T. carnifex, T. dobrogicus, T. ivanbureschi, T. macedonicus.)" The Latinism viz. is more common for this purpose.
Several uses of like are of different sorts, and cannot be substituted with as, though are sometimes partially overlapping in meaning those senses of like which can be:
'Similar to', 'having qualities or characteristics of' (as direct, though sometimes metaphoric, comparison, usually in the form of observations, and in questions about comparison or description): "You look like Merle Haggard!" "I feel like death warmed over." "They sound just like my old band." "What does Tlingit folk music sound like?" Classified as a preposition or a conjunction depending upon construction,[1] or purely as a preposition.[2][3]
'Similarly to', 'in the manner of' (used for exaggeratory comparison): "I eat like a horse." "You drive like a maniac." Classified as a preposition.[3]Differs from 'in the manner of' comparisons that can take as, in not being plausible with that substitution; no one actually "screams as a banshee" unless they have become a mythological Celtic otherworld denizen.
'As if', 'as though' (used for usually metaphoric description, and may be considered informal[2]): "I feel like I just won the lottery." "It's like nothing good ever happens to him." "This game makes the player feel like they're really in the action." "Don't act like you're my boss!" Classified as a conjunction.[2][3]
'Typical or characteristic of', 'to be expected of': "It's not like her to be so moody". Classified as a preposition.[2][3][1] *** Is this also the 'typical, customary, or characteristic of', 'habitual for' case of "Love Me like You You" (i.e. "make love to me in the manner in which you usually do (so well)"? ***
'As if it will/was/did/might/could', 'in a way that suggests' (usually used in "it [verb] like" constructions): Does it looks like rain?, It sounds like we need to rethink this. Simultaneously classified as a preposition and a conjunction.[1]
'Willing to', 'in the mood for' (usually used with "feel"): I don't feel like leftovers again.Do you feel like dancing? Classified as a preposition.[1]
'Of [this/that] sort', 'akin to': "Why would he do something like this?" Classified as a preposition.[1]
'In such a way/manner as' (draws attention to nature of an action/event): "You needn't sound like that." "Why does it hurt like this?" Classified as a preposition.[2][3]
Obviously, I've skipped unrelated uses of like, as in "I like you a lot" (verb), "my post got 50 likes today on Facebook" (jargon noun), etc.
Except where especially pertinent (e.g. to the musical titles question), I have excluded house stylesheets of individual publishers, organizations, etc., and not included any self-published materials or student press or minor-institution stylesheets, and am working from current editions of all style guides except where noted otherwise.
Update: I have received several more in the mail that I have not cited yet, but the current source pile is getting too large to manage, so I'll expand on this later as needed.
