Okay Jack: you were saying some medieval lyrics were not folk. I'm sure you are right.

But of course, as you will know, 'lyrics' in these cases does not mean 'the words to songs'. A lyric, to a student of English Literature, and to academics like Davies appears to have been, as you will know, is a relatively short poem, with 'long' being, say Canterbury Tales, or a long epic.


It is a moot point whether any of these 'lyrics' were intended to be sung. I haven't seen Sidgwick and Chambers, but one online comment I found states that its purpose is to put 'poetry' prior to the sonnet into the public domain. Take Chaucer; he wrote rondels and 'ballades' (probably taking these forms from Europe) but no music survives for any of these, casting doubt on whether they were intended ever to be sung, as opposed to being read or recited.

Some diatonic melodeons have bass chords that go with the relative minor keys. You can get some 'accidentals' if you havea two key instrument. (Thanks wikipedia).

Dobson and Harrison seems to be one on your list that lists words with music in the medieval contemprary form, but they seem only to have found 33.?