Humanity’s heartbeat
Field recordings, long a source of musical history, are under threat everywhere
“WHOEVER wishes to collect from the mouth of the people should hurry; folk songs are disappearing one after another.” Thus wrote Ludolf Parisius, a German song collector, nearly two centuries ago. Others have since said the same, for just as spoken languages can die, so too can musical ones.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Humanity’s heartbeat”
From the August 13th 2016 edition
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