Alice,
We're all 'judgmental' about people's voices - whether we express our opinions to their faces or otherwise. It's call having 'taste' or 'preference'.
"Do you think a woman singing a lullaby 100 years ago would have the town telling her, you can't do that, you don't have the right kind of voice to sing!"
The singers we've recorded were not backward in expressing their opinions about the singing of others - or the 'right and wrong' way to sing - read the bits of interview we did with Walter Pardon in the Musical Traditions 'Enthusiasm' response I wrote under the title 'By Any Other Name'.
Richard's snide comments aside, surely there's no harm in giving your opinion on what is or is not 'folk', 'classical' or whatever - that's surely what we do all the time.
It is more often than not left to the listener or even posterity to decide which is what - I wonder if Beethoven called himself a 'classical' composer.
Rosie
""spreading the fighting"
Sorry - not the best turn of phrase - meant to be flippant; I was responding to Ref's comment on 'quality' of singing.
Best,
Jim Carroll