Don Firth wrote:
"Yeah, I agree about "classic" and "classical." I had always used the term "classic guitar" because that's what I had always heard it referred to, and, as I mention above, the way the technique manuals for the instrument referred to it. But the word "classic" has become so widely and indiscriminately used that it seems to have lost its meaning. So "classical" guitar. . . ."

That's odd; I've never heard the term "classic guitar" used in that sense, however I might just not have been paying attention. I do sometimes play "classical" music on the guitar, although, with some exceptions, I tend to prefer music from other eras to music from the classical period in the strict sense, i.e., approx. Haydn to Beethoven. I have quite a bit of music, rather heavy on the Renaissance and Baroque eras, but have bought very little instructional material for classical guitar. I have one volume of the Schaller-Scheit series, which explains about playing from a figured bass, which is _very_ interesting.

Stringsinger wrote:
"The interaction between folk music and so-called classical music is not distant but is often perceived as such. Many composers of so-called "classical" music derived their inspiration from folk themes."

Yes, that was quite popular at one time, or actually, at a couple of times, and some of this music is among my favorite music. I love the folksong arrangements of Benjamin Britten. I also like Kathleen Ferrier very much. I think it's a shame that this way of singing folksongs seems to have gone completely out of fashion. I was very pleased to see all the postings about Richard Dyer-Bennet. My parents have a record of his, and I listened to it occasionally. I would be very interested in hearing him again. Not that their way of singing folksongs was the same, but there were certain similarities.

I'm not knocking anyone's way of singing folksongs, but it seems to me that on the one hand there's a great deal of sameness in the way folk music is performed and on the other hand a great lack of knowledge among the listening public about what folk music really is --- not that anyone can really give a definitive answer to this question. As for some of the music that's being marketed as "World Music" --- don't get me started.