If a performance is not an instance of a work, it cannot meaningfully be called a brilliant performance of that work.

Within the ontology of music, the claim for which the score fully, and solely, individuates the work has received the most attention. Separating ontological from evaluative claims, as seen above, Goodman could not state his stance on the matter more clearly: “the most miserable performance without actual mistakes” counts as an instance of a work, “while the most brilliant performance with one wrong note does not” (1976, 186). Of the two claims, that compliance with a score is necessary for a per