caught the spirit

Old Time Music is bizarre in that from the outside looking in, all you see are a bunch of musicians playing some really old music (like 1700s, 1800s, etc.) But the reality is actually very different. In the act of playing these tunes, one is not playing in the past, there is a presentness to the music. It is alive NOW. Who cares if it was alive then. It is palpable music in that ordinary people play it and play it together....still. There is something profound in the fact that those old fiddle and banjo tunes have survived for so long - that people have had the interest and the zeal in succeeding generations to learn the tunes, too. Old time music, for those who have caught it, is a very accessible music for expression. Those old fiddle tunes begin to gain clarity - their feeling understood....whereas before it was just some bowing and some notes. Now you can feel the story of the tune even if there's no words at all. There is a spirit attained. Everyone grasps the spirit differently. And yet they gather together in large flocks to share the same. I once heard somebody describe a circle of old time musicians as in "communion" - their heads bowed, eyes closed, etc. Sometimes the playing is raucous and full of jubilation. After a while, one forgets what their fingers are doing and...... I think I have no choice now but to accept that there is something supremely special about it all.

Bizarre that music evolves, and yet old time is evolving at such a slower rate over time, though it evolved into OTHER forms of music that followed it: blues, "country", etc. Perhaps it is evolving in its own circle so slowly because of its distinction. There actually is an element of preservation to the music. But that preservation is not stuffy nor scholarly. It is a preservation based out of admiration and respect for those who came before us and loved the tunes the way we do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03lusDmD_v4