Saving the Old Tunes

The figures are sobering. Of the many hundreds of regional fiddle tunes and traditional songs once handed down at kitchen parties across Canada, a large share are now performed by almost no one. More slip out of collective memory with every passing decade, as the last musicians who learned them by ear grow old and pass away. Supporters of what is loosely called "music revival" argue that rescuing even a single endangered tradition helps anchor a community's fragile link to its cultural past. This movement has lately gained real institutional weight. A handful of provincial governments have begun funding heritage-music archives and school programs, yet administrators still weigh the competing considerations with visible caution. The difficult question now facing them is how far scarce public money should reasonably go to sustain traditions that the great majority of listeners have quietly abandoned.