cristian,traditional folk music,has been passed on in many different ways,.
Patrick Kelly[west clare fiddler]made the famous remark that the worst thing that happened to the clare fiddle style,were the recordings of sligo fiddler Micheal Coleman on 78 RPM.,
Traditional music performed by revival singers/musicians and traditional singers /musicians has been passed on by the radio[80 years] ,television[60 years]recordings[at least80years]mobile phones[5 years].
very few musician[be they traditional or revival] in the western world,have not learned a song/ tune,from one of these sources.
Fred Jordan originally had a repertoire,that he learned from his family,he then expanded his repertoire from the folk revival.
Bob Blake[at first thought to be a tradional singer] ,a fine singer,was evasive about his sources,and it would appear he was actually a revival singer.,Peter Kennedy[Clearly thought this mattered]but was prepared to dub on his own revival work on to existing traditional recordings.
Peter Kennedy was one of the major collectors of the twentieth century,but when he saw fit,he dubbed on his own melodeon,to traditional recordings he had collected,yet was not prepared to collect from a fine revival singer, because he was pretending to be a traditional singer,this is what prompted my earlier remarks about the nonsense of tradional /revival labels,and my remark about quality being important.
quality should also be important when it comes to a dissertation,but to assess quality/knowledge of the subject,the tutor /lecturer,should know at least as much as the student.
If a student writes a dissertation about house construction,it would be expected that the tutor understood pythagoras theorem[to enable the house to be built square].
BB wrote a dissertation on the Character and Charecteristics of folk song,She admits her tutor knew less than her on the subject,to my mind that devalues the status of her degree.
my advice is to seek out the following people, who should be able to advise you properly.Pete Seeger,Doc rowe,Vic Gammon,Frank Hamilton,Martin Carthy,Nicolas Carolan,Packie Byrne,louis killeen,RoyHarris