are getting the idea that "folk" is a matter of derivation whereas pretty well every other type of music is defined by form.
Surely Folk is as much about form as it is derivation if not even more so than other musics. This is one of the reasons I take issue with the 1954 Definition because it doesn't go into the musical form that defines the songs - i.e the venacular idioms in which they were composed and subsequently modified, or not.
Is a song only a Folk Song if we prove it's derivation? What of those songs where we can't do that - those that are purely idiomatic?
Is it really possible to discuss 1954 without wondering what other sorts of music it might possibly be talking about as well as our common or garden Folk Songs & Ballads? Is it a definition of Folk or a definition of Derivation?