On Monday, December 22, 2014 at 9:32:49 AM UTC-10,
> > On Saturday, December 13, 2014 4:14:07 AM UTC-10, William Sommerwerck wrote:
> > > I'm fussy about word usage. I'm increasingly annoyed by narrators saying
> > > "recorded history".
> > >
> > > "Recorded history" is a tautology. The word "history" implies something for
> > > which there's a written or visual record. * This is why dinosaurs are called
> > > pre-historic creatures.
> > >
> > > "Historically informed" performance practices have to be based on a reliable
> > > record of how music was actually performed -- not on what we think or assume
> > > performance practices were.
> > >
> > > I'm curious... Which HIPs have genuinely historical evidence supporting them?
> > >
> > > * Fossils don't count. We're talking rock carvings, cave paintings, etc.
> >
> > For those into HIP:
> >
> > - History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.
> >
> > Joseph Conrad
> >
> > -----------------
> >
> > And as I always say:
> >
> > - Can a Stradivarius
> >
> > in the hands of a beginner
> >
> > Ever sound as good as
> >
> > A pawn shop fiddle
> >
> > In the hands of a Paganini?
> >
> >
> > You can unearth and have access to all the historical instruments in the world, but once the last performer has died, the playing technique dies with him/her.

There is no music traditions sematary.