Traditionality in synchronic reperformances Sample Clauses

Traditionality in synchronic reperformances. In the conceptualisation of folklore and folksong, the category of ‘tradition’ has played a significant role. The ‘traditional’ aspect of folklore and folksong – since its intellectual roots in the nineteenth century, from which the two concepts emerged, up until recent times – has generally pointed to an undefined cultural primitivism, which proves however to be in most cases groundless and misleading (cf. §1.1.2.iv). Interestingly, we also find in antiquity a similar generalisation, especially in the perception of songs that are regularly performed in a religious context and that are described (often misleadingly) as vaguely ‘ancient’ (cf. §1.2.4). Likewise, even Xxxxxxxx’s hymn, though not attested before Xxxxxxxx, is referred to by Xxxxxxx of Tyre (Or. 7.1) as an ‘ancient song’ (ἀρχαῖον ᾆσμα). In order to better understand the reasons for similar (ancient and modern) generalisations and misperceptions, we should go beyond the strict and unilateral relation between tradition and the past, by primarily reflecting on what has been said above about the ‘synchronicity’ element in the performance of folk songs. Those songs that are constantly reperformed in a recurring event (synchronic reperformances) can be considered ‘traditional’ not in the sense of being ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘primitive’, but as being part of a habitual – in some cases even daily – routine. This kind of traditionality does not look at how ancient a song actually is, but takes into account the fact that songs, old and new, can become part of a traditional event, and within it assume a cultural value. This interpretative view is consistent with the most innovative approaches adopted in the analysis of the category of ‘tradition’. ‘Tradition’ still indicates the transmission of knowledge, but this transmission, as is now recognised, may not only establish a line of communication from the past to the present (cf. the nineteenth-century interpretation), but also extend a line of cultural communication from the present to the past.246 On this view, even what is new can assume a symbolic value that marks it as traditional. A society can acknowledge the 246 For an overview on this approach, with particular regard to the Homeric ‘tradition’, see Cantilena 2012. cultural value of certain phenomena and accordingly attribute to them a characteristic of antiquity that they often do not possess. In some cases, this cultural acknowledgement is less spontaneous but can be traced back to a constructed and ...