> > Early colonial life was hard! The early English and Spanish colonies in
> > North America were not characterized by much musical cultural growth, and
> > there is little evidence of lute playing or making in those times. Musical
> > instruments (lutes included) tended to get left at home by emigrating
> > colonists.
I think too it was tough and somehow as if regressing in time: the most
dominant aspects of society at these times were the religious and the military.
Regressing, because, imagine, even in England, France and Germany etc, there
was renaissance: this meant putting culture, poetry, arts in high status. Such
a wonderful and poetic creations in the times of Shakespeare or Dowland and his
songwriters--while in the "new world" people prayed sweating in churches seven
hours a day and "heretics" were expelled in the forests (the first trappers i
guess-hehe), and in some places witches burnt. When i look at amish today i
imagine i get a little of the scent of the mental schemes and climat that
rulled then. I red these accounts by someone from there at this time and it was
really stagnating and oppressive. They said, education was compulsarry but the
only education there was was religious (and pretty severe). They had these guys
jesuits creating even religious universities.
I always thought it is sick that i can study in France in institutions of high
education of superb quality for 200 dollars yearly, while my friends in US had
to have the luck to have moms that make good money so they can pay the 10 000
dollars per year to get higher education. Then also "normal" citizen society
never took over the medias there: here you see almost every night on TV
philosophers, all government figures, artists, writers, free journalists,
anthropologists, etc, engaging in free uncensured discussion while in the US
extremely popular writers like Naom Chomsky, for example, has gotten 0 (zero)
minutes TV time durring his entire life and twice 5 minutes radio time--one of
which was interrupted..He gets his media time better in Canada (free country:)I
don't know for when was Leonard Cohen singing "democracy is comming to the
usa"-lol. But he's for sure is in some gestapo Black List for "daring" :)
One thing (among many other) is cool for sure though-enourmous body of scottish
and irish dance music survived (and never died) in the new continent.
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