This chapter analyses the evolving attitudes regarding strict adherence to the musical score or otherwise, aided by a discussion of the development of editing, of Urtext editions, and of the piano from the late 18th- to the 20th-century. It is argued that musicians today often treat a musical score with an unhistorical and pedantic reverence unlikely to have been the norm during the time most standard-repertoire scores were themselves written.
Keywords: musical scores, editing, Urtext, repertoire, evolution of the piano