Some of this now strikes me as philosophical/psychological. A related example would be the question of surtitles at the opera. My own feeling is that surtitles are great, but they do present a problem, which is that the part of the brain that reads (let's call it left brain, though I am left handed, and all this brain division stuff strikes me as anti-leftie, but let that pass for the moment) is engaged in reading surtitles, while the right brain is the part that should be engaged in the opera spectacle. I have wrestled with this for awhile, and can't really decide: but I do think there is a lessening of the impact with the brain switching back and forth (though the brain is pretty swift). The reading of songbooks and lyric sheets maybe strikes some people as a lesser experience to the "true" oral tradition.

yours,

Peter T.