Hi Jim,
Nice one! 'Rejected' and 'uninfluenced' are not mutually exclusive of course. I bow to superior expertise, cetainly on the travellers, but perhaps we're talking about degrees (that's 'degrees of' rather than academic degrees :-) ). If you want to e-mail us your address (via umbermusic.co.uk)I can now send you a copy of something I promised you years ago.
Hi Dick,
I think you missed the point about arias! If you don't intend singing them, why not? Or perhaps you are saying there is more than just 'good/bad singing'; perhaps there is thing called 'folk'? I just knew I shouldn't have tried irony.
Hi Brian,
Or (as a purely academic exercise, of course,) compare these two statements.
"The important point is not who is singing the song but how the song is being sung" Dic Miles (above)
" You can't damage a song by singing it. The only way you can damage the song is by not singing it". Martin Carthy (TV)

Tom