We do at least know what we mean by the word music. Music is only truly created in the PRESENT, at the moment the notes are formed. It will not be the same as you have done it before or the same as you may do it again in the future.

The traditional way of doing something (including music) does not mean, the way we did it in the past but to continue in the way that we do it NOW.

It is not a long-dead and dusty fossil that we need to record and classify but a living, breathing and healthy animal to live along side. It is the difference between preservation of the past and conservation for the future.

The DT is so very important, not as a record of what we did but as a cyber tool of today, to help and enable us to continue doing exactly what we are doing NOW. This forum and now The Mudcat Song (and tune) Book, clearly demonstrate the present and I do not see any problems with the future of this music. For as a result of all this technology, we all now know so much more about the whole global nature of our music, influences and its appeal. The Mudcat, on its own clearly demonstrates that we are not alone.

The only danger, I see is in those who, because they are comfortable with it, would nail the music to some fixed moment in time (and place) and as a result watch it wither and die.

It has been interesting following the thread, to see how the distinctions are made between the past (=traditional), the present and the future as if they were all different countries?