Janet –
Do musicians (classical) “draw on” all periods?. Surely they simply perform music of different periods – they are not creative artists but performing ones. – It is true that performers move through all centuries and forms, or some of them do. We still wish to hear the great composers of the past performed , but we would not find much necessity for a contemporary composer who wrote in the style of Bach, even if he seemed almost as good. This is not to say that poets or composers of music cannot constantly seek inspiration in the past, but this does not mean tacking on antique mannerisms or “twiddley bits” to give a “graceful” air. Why should we, when we have the creative and brilliant originals? Musicians (jazz) certainly play music from the past (and the distant past for them was more or less the 1920s) but in a completely different style, and they do not improvise in the same way, harmonically or rhythmically. If they do it is simply regarded as “tourist” stuff to be performed in waistcoats and straw boaters. We don’t need “heritage centre” poetry. AE makes a very good point (among many) that we cannot behave as if modernism never existed and that it is difficult to use forms that have been extensively mocked.
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