[jnximjgn] Expectation to modify masterpieces

A composer probably chose to publish a song not when it he or she was convinced it was perfect but when it became good enough: good enough to sell, or perhaps the composer has gotten tired of working on it and will be more productive working on a different project.  The composer is only human, working under real-world constraints.

Thus there is a mutual expectation, perhaps even duty, for later musicians to modify and seek to improve any composition, no matter how good it seems to be.  Or at least, there was such a mutual expectation in the pre copyright era.

Perhaps this expectation reduces the stress on the composer; there is less pressure to get it perfectly right because someone in the future will fix it if it isn't. And, in the absence of copyright and composer as hero, all your works, but especially your bad mistakes, will quickly get disassociated from your name (instead perhaps taking the name of the person who improved it), so you don't have to worry about your legacy being perpetually defined by your mistakes.

Inspired by the Busoni arrangement of the Bach Chaconne.