Playing with tradition

Being stuck in a slightly stuffy University music department yesterday made me think about the conflict between the need the uphold a tradition of great art, and the desire to simply play with stuff in a much freer manner. Over-reverence for the past driven by pathological institutions is a pretty deadly combination. Maybe we revere the past because we are so uncomfortable with our present situation. People need to conserve tradition (and learn the necessary skills to do so), but there's a fine line between conserving and asserting a world-view which fundamentally undermines tradition.

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