Introduction. Musical Texts and Contexts: Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell?Bruno FormentMind the Gap: Reimagining Incomplete Medieval MusicNiels BerentsenPerforming by the Book (Next to the Book You Were Looking For), or: Aby Warburg’s “Good Neighbour”Björn SchmelzerPluralising the Musical Text: Improvising on Canonic RepertoireJonathan AyerstÀ la recherche du chant perdu: The airs sérieux in the Recueils d’airs sérieux et à boire de différents auteurs (1695–99) as a Lens on Vocal Practices in the Seventeenth-Century Parisian SalonElizabeth DobbinFrom Beethoven Performance to Beethoven Interpretation: Carl Czerny and Franz Liszt’s Evolving Relationship, 1822–57Camilla KöhnkenNineteenth-Century Texts in the Twenty-First CenturyGeorge KennawayThe Flexible Text: Published and Unpublished Alterations to the Schumann Cello Concerto in the Nineteenth CenturyKate Bennett WadsworthThe Romantic Conductor-Scholar: What I Learned from the ArchivesNir Cohen-ShalitRelocating Ravel’s “Sad Birds” in Alternative Forests of Place and TimeXiangning LinThe Virgin Act: Mediating Supplement and Repetition in PerformanceClare LesserOnline materialsNotes on ContributorsIndexThe challenges and limits for musicians dealing with texts.To perform a musical score implies the transformation of a symbolically coded text into vibrant sound. In Performing by the Book? a carefully selected cadre of artist-researchers dissects this delicate act in critical ways. Offering first-hand insights into the notational, structural and interpretative challenges faced by musicians in dealing with texts of all kinds, the chapters traverse the spectrum between the Middle Ages and the age of Stockhausen. In a harmonious blend of scholarly allure and individual artistry, free from academic obfuscation, the contributors keep a keen eye on the limits of interpretation, both in terms of the interpretative process itself and of the balance between textual faithfulness and artistic autonomy. This comprehensive volume is an indispensable guide for everyone interested in the relationship between musical performance and texts.To perform a musical score implies the transformation of a symbolically coded text into vibrant sound. In Performing by the Book? a carefully selected cadre of artist-researchers dissects this delicate act in critical ways. Offering first-hand insights into the notational, structural and interpretative challenges faced by musicians in dealing with texts of all kinds, the chapters traverse the spectrum between the Middle Ages and the age of Stockhausen. In a harmonious blend of scholarly allure and individual artistry, free from academic obfuscation, the contributors keep a keen eye on the limits of interpretation, both in terms of the interpretative process itself and of the balance between textual faithfulness and artistic autonomy. This comprehensive volume is an indispensable guide for everyone interested in the relationship between musical performance and texts.