Dick, I think the digitrad is wonderful. Thank you.

There are a lot of songs which I have learned that I have never heard because nobody around me sang them, they are beautiful songs that move me and speak to me. I am grateful to the collectors of the past, present and future. It is because of these collectors that we have a large body of songs to draw from that are not dictated to us by those with power and money to do so.

Shambles I don't think you can justly compare the collection of independent living creatures, butterflies or eggs, with the collection of abstract entities, songs, which only live when humans give them voice. The creatures may die but the songs just lie dormant until woken by others.

Collectors may or may not misrepresent people and follow their own biases in their collections, but I'm glad for the enthusiasm that led them to believe that these things were worthy of collection. Paternal attitudes at the turn of the century were part of the time and collectors didn't escape them any more than we escape being influenced by attitudes in our time. But they still thought that there were songs that needed to be shared and saved and they did what they could. It might have been a sadder world if they had held back for fear of being thought precious. Just because a song is written in a book doesn't mean that others weren't or aren't singing it and altering it at the same time. It allows for a multiplicity of alterations over time.