The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119490   Message #2629706
Posted By: GUEST,glueman
12-May-09 - 06:28 AM
Thread Name: What makes it a Folk Song?
Subject: RE: What makes it a Folk Song?
I ask again, who decides? Victorian neo-medievalists? Edwardian sentimentalists? post-war ruralists? alienated Beatniks? All folkish accretions rely on the dubious provenance of 'the people' which is itself an arbitrary romantic construct. If a Show of Hands tune (God help us all) were accomodated into the folk garden at what point would it be attested? Would the people who currently believe it is be proved correct and vindicated, or were they wrong until a committee decides?