Squeezy said: "The only thing that falls down in this discussion is that only in the last 100 or so years have we been able to listen back to the earliest recordings of traditional music - something which was never possible before and certainly slows down the natural evolution of traditional music while people are constantly put under pressure to constantly refer to it as "the right way to go about things" ".

I had never thought of that, but as soon as you said it it hit me between the eyes. Quite an effect, too. It means that evolution is being in a sense hamstrung by the fact that we can listen to the old interpretations - well, not so much by that, but rather because of the resulting rise of "religious observance" of old styles of interpretation.

But this must have other effects also, some even counteracting the above; for example, the wider access to the various interpretations must surely mean that the critical population sizes now can be much smaller than before.

In other words, the methods of musical evoilution are themselves evolving. Even as we speak/write.

My brain hurts... Off to Oz.