Subject: RE: Bartok: foreign influences in folk music
From: Jack Campin - PM
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 10:00 AM

"(If there was ever any folksong collector who simply treated their sources as bins in a record shop, I can't think who it might have been - it's a line of work that only appeals to people who are interested in and empathetic with their fellow human beings)."

I wish I could agree with you about this, but I've recently read some rather uncomplimentary things about a some folksong collectors. I don't know enough about it to judge whether they were true or not.

I do believe that in most cases the people who supplied the songs were mostly forgotten when it came to copyright assignments and they didn't get any royalties when songs were printed or recordings were made.

There's a thread going on about a reprint of Bronson's tunes to the Child ballads (which I'd love to buy, but can't currently afford). In the introduction, he says some interesting things on the topic of copyrighting folksongs. (He's against the practice.)

It's not quite the same thing, but recently, there was a whole program on the radio here in Germany ("Radio Globo" with Klaus Frederking) about the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which was written by a South African composer and musician. He sold the song outright for something like $2.50 or maybe $10, I don't remember. Okay, so maybe he should have known better. Just one of a thousand stories of musicians getting taken advantage of.

After being around academia in one way or another for a long time, I am very far from taking it on faith that the motives of any scholars or scientists are as pure as the driven snow, and that includes folksong collectors.