Thanks a lot that is very clear.

It seems that the analogy that Sharp used of folk songs being like (I think) birds in a group flying across the sky with those at the front peeling off and changing the shape of the flight, is not true for many songs

Contemporary singer-songwriters that I have discussed the origins of old songs simply see them as old songs written by anon.

Defenders of the faith of traditional songs would have them as the distilled essence of something or other, passed on so much as to have no creater.

Do we all stand near the middle now or closer to one or the other?