Subject: RE: nouveau 'folk'
From: theleveller - PM
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 07:38 AM

"Maybe a harmonica, concertina, accordeon, guitar or other mass-produced instrument occurs in Hardy, but I don't remember any such passages."

"Not that I recall - does the Serpent qualify?"

No, I think mass-production of serpents was a no-goer.

I just read (or rather read in) two books, one about accordeons and one about harmonicas. They were more about the historical and sociological aspects and styles of music and didn't contain very detailed information about the construction of the instruments. They were very interesting with respect to the changes in the way music was made by the nearly universal availability of inexpensive instruments, especially the harmonica. I'm sure a similar book could be written about guitars. Of course, a negative aspect (from my point of view) is that the availability of inexpensive, mass-produced instruments "pushed out" traditional instruments.

Subject: RE: nouveau 'folk'
From: Darowyn - PM
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 04:15 AM

"There are so many traditions, even in one small country, that either everyone is traditional or, nobody is. How many times does something have to be repeated before it becomes a tradition?"

I think this is one of those questions that don't have an ultimate answer. One has to look at every case and define exactly what one is talking about at any given time. Maybe singing folksongs to the accompaniment of a guitar is a tradition now, but it isn't what I usually mean when I talk about traditional folksongs (but that's just me).