Wow. Can we even be sure we're listening to the right thing? Is it actually possible to read this unambiguously or is there an element of context when reading music, similar to how if you're reading prose the next word is probably grammatically correct and makes sense?
The composers who didn't have neat handwriting are forgotten today because nobody could read their (musical) notes...
This is simply not true. Look at Beethoven's manuscripts for instance.
https://guides.loc.gov/beethoven/manuscripts
That's one of the reasons why he spent several years to write a single symphony.
Wow. Can we even be sure we're listening to the right thing? Is it actually possible to read this unambiguously or is there an element of context when reading music, similar to how if you're reading prose the next word is probably grammatically correct and makes sense?
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You can check all this out for yourself at IMSL. Tons of holograph copies there for lots of composers. https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page