"The death-knell of the tradition came when we became passive recipients of, rather than participants in our culture."

Have 'we' become so? It seems that everywhere I look, I see young people learning to play instruments and making their own music. But this in and of itself does not make it folk music (by the 1954 definition, which I more or lesss agree with). My opinion: to make it 'folk' we need . . .

a. settled (or travelling) communities
b. time

The dislocations of modern life make both of these variables difficult, but not impossible, to establish. Add to this electronic communication and it is obvious that folk music (in the 'west') will not exist now and in the future the way it has in the past. But somehow this music continues to exist organically. Who reading this hasn't recently showed a song or melody to someone else, or learned a bit from someone else? Working as a teacher, I've played traditional music for kids and later heard them singing it or humming the tune. Who knows where all this music will end up?