The Minstrel and the Pure Chalice

In this folk-inflected critique of artistic gatekeeping, scholars defend a supposedly “pure” musical tradition while quietly relying upon the very tools they condemn. The approachable, singable setting sharpens the irony: innovation repeatedly becomes respectable only after its usefulness can no longer be denied.

Purity is a chalice most often polished by those who have neglected to inspect its contents. The scholars within this song speak nobly of art untouched by mechanism, fashion, or assistance. Then their choir entereth in miraculous tune, supported by precisely the contrivances they had condemned before supper. I did not invent the contradiction. I merely seated it where the audience could see.

The melody was kept direct because hypocrisy requireth no ornamental disguise. A wandering, communal air alloweth the refrain to pass easily from one voice to another, as new art itself passeth from scandal into custom. Every age denounceth some instrument, method, or invention as the death of honest creation. Presently the same innovation is placed behind glass, granted a history, and defended from whatever arriveth next. The chalice remaineth pure chiefly because no generation admiteth who hath been pouring into it.