So I had my first encounter with a non-purist today...

Several years ago, as I was tackling my first song composed by the great patriarch of music, J.S. Bach, I received a small lecture from my teacher. Don't cringe, it wasn't a lecture of the bad kind.
She informed me of the different opinions concerning what to do with Bach's music. Dynamics or no dynamics? That is the question.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed his hundreds upon hundreds of works of music during the 1700s. Composing primarily for voices, strings and a little instrument called the harpsichord.
What is so important about the harpsichord you ask? Well, it is an ancestor of the piano-forte.

Which I happen to be thankful for here in the 21st century because I make my living with it.

Any-who...Bach's instrument was unique from the piano-forte in that it had no pedals, meaning it could not sustain sound, nor did it have the ability to produce dynamics-no louds or softs. Harpsichords were prized, as were the composers that wrote on them and the music, just like everything else in society at this time, was very ornate and busy. The style is called Baroque.

I personally find no need for dynamics as I am playing Bach, keeping track of four melodies going on at once is really quite enough for me. ("Please don't give me more to worry about, please...")
However, I must admit part of this inborn preference of mine is due to that lecture that fell on my ears during the time I was soaking up absolutely everything I could about this art form called music. My teacher said that some people think that if these great composers had had access to pedals and dynamics at the time they were composing, they would have used them and therefore we are now justified to put dynamics into Baroque music as we see fit.
I thought it sounded fishy from the beginning but that's slightly beside the point.
Anyway, as she was explaining it all she mentioned off-hand that she was a "purist". This label for herself instantly and inadvertantely labeled for me all people of the opposite opinion as "non-purist". To my mind this carries a negative connotation, what about to yours?

Well I got to a new teacher and I played her my Bach song.
She thought it was good. (Score...)
She thought my fingering was clean. (Awesome...)
She said my notes were pretty accurate. (Oh yeah...)
Her only suggestion was that I add in a little dynamics.

"Whoa...she's a non-purist..." A music teacher that's not a purist!...
I felt like a life-long Baptist the first time he or she meets a Christian with tatoos or piercings...
"That's really possible?"