I hope this will come out right and not step on any toes--

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony that these days, folks so often try to address FOLK music "origins" questions by looking for publication "proofs"??? And that it seems normal to ask for sheet music to stuff that came from, moved through, and largely stayed in an ORAL mode of transmission?

IMO, all a publication date tells us is that a song probably had existed, in oral form, before that date. At most (in much of the music I deal with) the earliest published version we can find represents the last tower built on old runins, sticking up out of the sand that's blown over the ruins that were already hidden under successive layers of buildings. That tower, visible though it may be, is not the whole story or even the most relevant story!

I have no quarrel with sheet music, or people wanting to use it, or having as much of it as possible to supplement what I hear. But when people ask for "the" sheet music to a song, I always wonder-- do they think some folkie in the distant past made a killing off of a publishing deal, for each and every song anyone might ask for? "The" as though there is a defninitive version?

"Composed by" citations evoke my reaction: "Liar, liar, pants on fire." (The one who claimed composer rights.) Do folks really think attributions worldwide are any more accurate that our own ongoing DT efforts to attribute? It's messy!

Just wondering,

~Susan