Conveying a composer’s original intention is more difficult than it might appear. Original manuscripts from Bach’s era were handwritten, often hastily with ink on parchment. Where the original manuscript is available, it may have been sloppily written or be damaged or incomplete, leaving the musicologist to reconstruct the composer’s intentions from later versions. Unlike with a music manuscript, we usually have a complete copy of the contract. Still, delving into the parties’ intentions can require an examination of the context in which the contract was written and how the parties acted after they signed it.
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