Additional Thoughts on Arts in the Digital Age

        The Digital age really has brought art to a new level. More tools and available for all kinds of arts, and art of all kinds can be spread rapidly to a wide audience. In a way, this may seem to devalue certain arts. For example, in the 1800's one could go to a Tchaikovsky Symphony and maybe hear it once in their lives, now someone can sit and listen to it over and over again. At the same time, new digital age technology may even be helping bring back ancient art forms that would never be heard by a modern audience. The ASTRA Project (Ancient Instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) is a project in which researchers are using advanced computer and modeling equipment to reconstruct the sounds of ancient instuments that today we only have broken remains of. Many musicians spend much time studying performance practice, that is playing a piece of music in the style it would have been played when it was written(for example, singers did not utilize vibrato in Renaissance sacred music). It seems that as technology moves towards the future, it may be connecting us with the past.