Preservation?

Subject: Preservation?
From: Traveller
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:08 AM

I'm new to this forum, so maybe this has been endlessly hashed over already, but is preservation of folk music really the right idea? Celebration, sure, or performance or whatever, keeping it alive, even-- but to preserve something sounds to me a little like embalming. You've only to go to Celtic Connections to see how alive music is.

Just a thought--

Traveller

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: Amergin
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:18 AM

Just think of it as a collective memory....and yes it has been done before.....

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:53 AM

For what it's worth I reckon that it probably is worth preserving as is any work of art. I do disagree with the 'this is the way this must be done' faction though.

Lets look at and listen too how it used to be done and then do it in our own special ways. That way it neither detracts from the original or keeps us in a rut.

After all we preserve the old buildings while still building new. We admire the old masters while appreciating the modern. And we love the classics while still groovin' on down to the latest sounds... Don't we???

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: English Jon
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 06:10 AM

Imagine if Celtic musicians were to reject everything traditional? You have to preserve the old stuff in order to have a frame of reference upon which to develop.

If musical traditions are "Alive", that suggests birth, growth etc (and implies ultimate death...Think about that. Does development ultimately become destruction?).

Or have I been reading too many Carthy Sleevenotes?

Jon

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 09:11 AM

There are those here that would like to preserve the tradition intact and an equal number that would like things to evolve.

I think the world is big enough to accomodate both approaches and I am very happy about that.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 09:12 AM

There are those here that would like to preserve the tradition intact and an equal number that would like things to evolve.

I think the world is big enough to accomodate both approaches and I am very happy about that.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 01:43 PM

The advantage of preserving at least some of the tradition (via recordings) intact is in that occasional cycle back to see what we've forgotten about in the meantime.

Besides, we can't stop music from evolving. That's effortless. The effort comes in learning what someone older than we are has to teach us.

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 02:11 PM

I like preserves. Strawberry is my favorite.

Alex

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 02:24 PM

Largely it's about going back and picking up on good things that have been discarded unjustly by a "music" industry obsessed with novelty, and change, because that's how you make money. And then it gets dusted down, and given another chance.

And since it is live music, it continues to develop, in accordance with its own nature and the needs and tastes of the people in the folk world. Essentially, we're taking the road less travelled. Still moving, but maybe not exactly towards the same destination as the other people around us.

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: MMario
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 02:35 PM

it's a matter of semantics - what we need is a word in English that means "taking a sample as a reference point so that in the future the living tradition of that time can be compared to the living tradition of this time in order for comparision, education and/or growth." But we settle on using "preserve"

Subject: RE: Preservation?
From: Greyeyes
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:53 PM

An interesting analogy is the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre in London. People are still introducing new and vibrant ways to produce Shakespeare's plays, but for students of the genre, recreating them as they were performed originally has been an invaluable exercise for serious Shakespeare scholars, casual students and tourists alike. More power to all our elbows.