Don't have too much time to be involved at present - we've just been offered the possibility of publishing some of our field work, including a collection of Irish Travellers songs, which we will probably call (somewhat unimaginatively) 'Folk Songs Of The Irish Travellers'.
In the meantime, a clarification.
If the 1954 definition was 'just an opinion' it was one based on extensive work carried out on the subject, largely by Cecil Sharp, the result of which was published in his 'English Folk Song, Some Conclusions'. The definition was certainly not the brainchild of one person, Maud Karpeles or whoever, but was finally arrived at by a gathering of people, also experienced in the subject, at 7th Conference of The International Folk Music Council at Sao Paulo in 1954 and was written up by 'Auntie Maud' in their journal the following year.
Let's not foul up any discussion with distortions and misinformation so early in the proceedings - there will be plenty of time for that later.
Whatever is 'decided', ie, whatever 'opinions' are expressed here, life will go on as normal elsewhere.
The term 'folk song', more or less coinciding with the details of the 1954 definition has been in use for over a century (see DK Wilgus's 'Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship Since 1898'), and in the field of anthology and research this continues to be the case. Over the last few years I have availed myself of 'A History of European Folk Music' (pub. 1997), the 8th and final volume of 'The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection (2002), 'Folk Song - Tradition, Revival and Recreation' (2004), and 'Folk In Print - Scotland's Chapbook Heritage' (2007).
Whatever happens to the folk revival in the future (I strongly believe that this has been in the balance for some time now), and whatever 'we few, we happy few, we band of brothers' decide what should be the 'correct' definition of the term 'folk', it is titles such as these which will survive as an account of folk music in the 20th and 21st century.
Let the games begin!
Jim Carroll