“Writing out music sends the message that what is eternal about a composition is the selection and order of pitches, regardless of what instrument you play them on: it says that “this is song is ‘C’, then ‘B’, then …”. And I don’t know that this is *true*”. This is a great point.

I went to a concert of works by the composer Golijov recently. For illustration, one vocal piece was accompanied in one instance by a piano and in another by a string quartet. The entire piece shifted so much, on as little change as the instrumnentation as that.