Continuity of Culture 1

So a couple of years ago I read the book Vroom with a View, written by Australian journalist Peter Moore, who went to Italy to buy a classic Vespa and find the country’s Dolce Vida. Along the way some other Vespa devotees take Peter to a bar in Livorno called the Civili.

“The Civili has been open for over 100 years, a self-proclaimed ‘bar, meeting place, institution and temple to continuity’.”

In other words the bar is something of a touchstone for local culture. The kind of place the locals go to see and be seen, flirt, carouse, quite possibly while sitting in the very seats their great grandparents sat in when they met.

This same concept of cultural continuity is something I’ve become aware of in the music I listen to. There are certain songs I’ve come across that for me epitomise this concept. Something in the lyrics, arrangement, or instrumentation evoke both an ancientness and timelessness. Much of this music could be classified as folk, roots, or traditional, while some of it is genuinely modern. The universality of the themes involved, combined with the adoption and adaptation of older musical styles are what make these click for me.

None of us will ever hear truly ancient music. Audio recordings haven’t been around long enough, but we do have sheet music, and the occasional mechanical device (music boxes, chime clocks, etc). Even these don’t go back all that far, so all we are left with are the living traditions, but we can’t pretend that these haven’t changed in the hundreds or thousands of years. Perhaps that isn’t the point though. There’s a quotation I wish I could find, that was something along the lines of “Don’t try to retrace the steps of those who have gone before, travel instead in the direction they were going.”

It’s this approach that to my mind, creates the most powerful folk music. This is why songs like Incantata by Fiamma Fumana (suitably Italian, like the Civli) are moving to me. In this case the style is primarily modern with only a few traditional accents, but the lyrics reveal a historical sensitivity bottled up inside a modern young urbanite.

Fortunately for us, Fiamma Fumana include translations of their lyrics in their liner notes.

Shining clear sky
Quiet river between the banks
Pontoon bridge on the gleaming water
Silently we stand here

Inside you is light
Inside you is new intensity
Spellbound

April breeze on us
Warm sun on the paths
You gaze on, spellbound, one with the valley
Young, ancient, spellbound

Inside you is light…



I couldn’t find a video online, and don’t really have any suitable images for a slide show, so while you listen you can gaze at my dream Vespa … what was I saying about being modern, yet classic?

Over the next little while I hope to post more such songs. I’d love to hear your comments as I go. Happy listening.