To add to the debate - I was listening to the following last night and today. I find it interesting particulaly because it was BEFORE the 1954 definition, etc..
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East Anglia Sings.
BBC 3rd Programme - broadcast 27th Nov. 1947.
With Collector/Composer E.J.Moeran and BBC colleague Maurice Brown.

Female Announcer:
Mr. Moeran, can you define a Folk Song?

Moeran:
Well, I would say a Folk Song is that which has evolved itself in the course of time, among races or communities. As opposed to that deliberately composed by individuals and written out on staves of music.
But there is no reason why a Folk Song should not spring up today. As a matter of fact, we are playing one tonight about a living event which happened in Barton Broad.
And again, there is that ballad that I noted down in Oxfordshire about Mrs. Dyer, the wretched Baby Farmer and she was hanged at the end of the last century.

Brown:
Yes, and that was the type of song we wished to record, and we wanted them sung in the traditional, almost orchestral style, that the real folk song singer uses.

Moeran:
No accompaniment!

Brown:
No, certainly not. Think of some of those singers we heard elsewhere in Suffolk, some of the old ones knew folk songs, but they had sung them too long with a vamping piano, all the character had been ironed out of them.

Moeran:
Yes, Yes, and there is another thing, the words. We agreed that it was our duty to record the words as they were actually sung. Unfortunately much of the verbal texts of collections published so far have had about the same relation as the genuine article as does Thomas BowdlerÕs version to the authentic Shakespeare.

Brown:
Yes (and laughs..both)

Moeran:
This may or may not have been expedient with regard to collections intended for public purchase; but with regard to texts privately circulated by learned societies, can only be described to a kind of coyness and squeamishness.

Brown:
Well, those were our requirements and between us we were lucky enough to know where to go to find enough material for several broadcasts: Suffolk, and above all, North East Norfolk.

For more on the programme - see:
East Anglia Sings.
BBC 3rd Programme - broadcast 27th Nov. 1947.
With Collector/Composer E.J.Moeran and BBC colleague Maurice Brown.

Female Announcer:
Mr. Moeran, can you define a Folk Song?

Moeran:
Well, I would say a Folk Song is that which has evolved itself in the course of time, among races or communities. As opposed to that deliberately composed by individuals and written out on staves of music.
But there is no reason why a Folk Song should not spring up today. As a matter of fact, we are playing one tonight about a living event which happened in Barton Broad.
And again, there is that ballad that I noted down in Oxfordshire about Mrs. Dyer, the wretched Baby Farmer and she was hanged at the end of the last century.

Brown:
Yes, and that was the type of song we wished to record, and we wanted them sung in the traditional, almost orchestral style, that the real folk song singer uses.

Moeran:
No accompaniment!

Brown:
No, certainly not. Think of some of those singers we heard elsewhere in Suffolk, some of the old ones knew folk songs, but they had sung them too long with a vamping piano, all the character had been ironed out of them.

Moeran:
Yes, Yes, and there is another thing, the words. We agreed that it was our duty to record the words as they were actually sung. Unfortunately much of the verbal texts of collections published so far have had about the same relation as the genuine article as does Thomas BowdlerÕs version to the authentic Shakespeare.

Brown:
Yes (and laughs..both)

Moeran:
This may or may not have been expedient with regard to collections intended for public purchase; but with regard to texts privately circulated by learned societies, can only be described to a kind of coyness and squeamishness.

Brown:
Well, those were our requirements and between us we were lucky enough to know where to go to find enough material for several broadcasts: Suffolk, and above all, North East Norfolk.

For more on the programme - see:http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/moeran.htm