What about rounds? What about harmony in church and what about unaccompanied folk song collections reflecting the preconceptions of the collectors not what was there to be collected? As I said, it depends on what you call 'folk song'. Most people would not consider church music in that bracket. I don't know about the incidence of rounds in traditional singing - not great I suspect. Collectors like Sharp tended to ignore parlour and music hall songs, but I know of no evidence that there was any widespread use of instrumental accompaniments, that they chose not to record. Steve Roud's recent and very well-researched 'Folksong in England' is quite specific about the collectors' selectivity, and also notes the occasional incidence of part-singing, but concludes - along with everyone else who's studied the subject - that traditional singing was overwhelmingly solo and unaccompanied.
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