Oh FFS!

The CONCLUSION (not test) arose from the then operation of the folk process. As a result of transmission through the folk process the song became anonymous. That's a result, not a condition.

Same thing goes for the prevalance of certain modes, if you think modes betoken anything, which I don't.

The folk process now operates by a song going into the folk circuit (or community), people learn it orally in that process (I certainly sometimes do - and it's how common mondegreens result) and it gets stylistically and verbally and melodically (I have a tendency to re-majorise tunes as I memorise them, for example) modified. What does not so frequently happen is the authorship becoming lost.

It's what the 1954 definition allows for as the adoption of composed song with modification.

The process of modification means that the "sound" is not a necessary or sufficient test of whether a song is a folk song, and that is why I explained above that Myssha was confused in the test she was applying. It also happens to be why most "folk metal" I have found is not folk.

DeG - don't give up your day job.