Klarinet Archive - Posting 000440.txt from 2003/11

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Geographic insularism
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 17:22:57 -0500

Another aspect of this, which applies directly to music, is that
population centers tend to homogenize once-isolated artistic styles.
Someday, perhaps, as the world's population increases, it will become
difficult to find unadulterated examples of almost every art form.
Music is certainly no exception. Geographic isolation is not a totally
bad thing for museums and other forms of archival.

One example that particularly struck me a few years ago was an ancient
burial chamber where the sun enters and strikes two different altars
only twice a year (birth and death, etc). When I considered visiting
the chamber at one of these moments, a docent told me: "Sorry, nowadays
the tree (which I could see from where I was standing) blocks the sun.
at those times of year The local environmental protection agency won't
allow the tree to be cut down because of 'green' regulations." So here
is an example of something precious (depending on your point of view, I
suppose) being discarded because it is located in a metropolitan area
where 'green' is in short supply because of overcrowding.

(I should add that the Earth's orbit has shifted enough over the
millenia that the sunlight doesn't hit exactly where it used to, but
that's another issue.)

Bottom line: it makes sense to me that some museums ought to be safe
harbors from metropolitan pressures --- not the least of which is that
*space* is usually more expensive or in short supply in a metropolis,
and therefore not-in-the-mainstream items and ideas tend to be sidelined
or subsumed.

Although it's not quite the same thing, I can't help thinking about
"Hungarian Dances" and "Sing Sing Sing" and so forth in the same
context.

....well, the turkey is on the table. Enjoy.

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