The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #121085   Message #2642566
Posted By: Richard Bridge
28-May-09 - 06:02 AM
Thread Name: Are 'Folk Arts' Elitist?
Subject: RE: Are 'Folk Arts' Elitist?
And perhaps I should add that couching your purported communications in the terms that you do, terms that will exclude the vast preponderance of the English-speaking world, surely demonstrates that whatever you are wurbling about is supremely elitist at least in terms of exclusion.

You will find however that folk song is expressed in ordinary words. They may in combination have an extraordinary effect, but there there is little attempt to exclude by obfuscation. There are of course the nonsense songs (like the Cutty Wren, or Nottamun Town - or Benjamin Bowmaneer) but even there what is said is in plain language even if the cumulative meaning is obscure.