WOOD's scores of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites are, even by his own standards, heavily marked. The meticulous attention to interpretative detail he notated into these, and indeed all his performing scores, is indicative of the context in which he worked: the lack of rehearsal time prompted the comprehensive instructions needed to convey his intentions to musicians who were often reading at sight. Jessie Wood outlined the significance of such scores as historical documents:

I know only too well, what silly jokes and wisecracks are exchanged among a certain set of musicians on this ‘blue pencil’ of Henry, but I often wonder if they know that young Henry Wood was the first to institute bow-marks in orchestral parts, and if they comprehend the untold artistic value of Henry's disciplinary markings in relation to orchestral playing to-day? Do they realize that Henry's bowings in those days way back have been the means of producing orchestral string tone, quality and phrasing as we know it – and insist upon – to-day? Do they know that at that period, in the old St. James's Hall concerts under Richter and August Manns, the players bowed as they pleased, some up, some down, and it took young Henry Wood to see and note what could be done for greater artistic results and to have the courage to impose his blue-pencil discipline?

Viewed in the context of music-making in England at the turn of the twentieth century, the markings are indicative of changing performing practices, including the still-vexed topic of uniform bowing mentioned above. Although Wood notes the date on a number of the scores, they contain performance directions from prior and succeeding years of use. Corresponding sets of orchestral parts in the archive are equally heavily marked, and significant changes warrant Wood's note ‘corrected’ on the individual covers. Jessie Wood also confirmed that while Wood's emphatic directions were evident from the outset, contrary to the persistent stereotype of his approach, regular revisions were observed: