AN AMERICAN TRADITION, A GLOBAL ART
An art can survive simply because its traditions survive, its practices continue. This kind of ritual survival is best accomplished in a society that remains static, and that is culturally homogenous. The survival of a work in a rapidly changing society, on the other hand, depends not only on whether it is handed down to us unmutilated, but on its ability to adapt to changing conditions of reception, on its capacity, when its original social function has been destroyed or altered beyond recognition, to create or inspire new kinds of significance that allow its vitality full play.
—CHARLES ROSEN, “The Future of Music,” 2001
Kazu Kumagai in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, 2013