Imagine someone putting a period at the end of every line in an Emily Dickinson poem.

Today someone brought in an edition of Brahms works for piano in which Emil Sauer had done the equivalent, adding slurs that entirely change the texture and implications of the piece.

It reminded me that as a teenager I was given that edition. I decided that Brhams was an inferior composer. One look at the Authentic edition (very inexpensive, published by Kalmus) in which there are almost no markings, assured me that the opposite is true.

Try fooling around with the punctuation in a poem you know and love, then compare the Sauer edition of Brahms to the Authentic and see for yourself.