Posts tagged parol evidence rule
Unfinished Music and “Unfinished” Contracts 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert both died in Vienna while still in their thirties. Each left an unfinished work which has become a staple in the classical music repertoire. Likewise, contracting parties may leave contracts incomplete or "unfinished."

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Determining a Composer’s Message and a Contract’s Meaning

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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Recitals

One month after my son started Suzuki violin at the age of three, I was surprised when his teacher said that he would be performing in a recital. He had barely learned to hold the violin and hadn’t yet played any notes. Contracts also have recitals. Although contracts don’t perform music, their recitals are up front and center, toward the beginning of the contract.

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