Interestingly, I found more significance in the disputed period on the Declaration of Independence than in any of the discussions concerning historical music manuscripts. Perhaps it's because the period substantially changes the meaning of the Declaration, whereas a missing staccato in a performance has a somewhat lesser effect on a piece of music as a whole.
And this is why I find it so frivolous to attempt to follow a composer's intent so carefully. Great composers are truly inspired, but their work still carries the imperfections of any human work. If we stop viewing compositions by the "great" composers as without flaw, then what difference do small inconsistencies in the performance of these works really make? A look at Beethoven's manuscripts provides us with enough evidence that composers are themselves unsure of the best way to realize a musical idea.
I think an obsession with performing music exactly as the composer wrote it drains life out of music making. Music ceases to be a participatory experience and instead becomes a "work" to be admired at a distance. Do we really want our concert halls to become museums?
Then again, perhaps we do. Is it not important to preserve our canon of great Western classical music as we do with art and literature? On one hand, I'm inclined to think so, but then I find myself more inspired by a piece of community-produced public art than the Mona Lisa.
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