"a rapidly dwindling culture of active participation in traditional arts and music"

I wonder.

We see the music scene dominated by mass-marketed stuff designed to make money, but there are still a few people making their own music. Before 100 years ago, that type of mass market didn't exist and most of us simply didn't hear any music at all from one week to the next. I'd guess that about the same number of people were making music for themselves then as are now - it's just that they are lost in the noise now whereas in the past they were much more noticeable and unusual.

Some kinds of amateur and independent music making are more accessible now than they used to be. Making and publishing recorded music is now a cottage industry, whereas you used to have to pay huge sums for studios and manufacturing. Anyone can make a CD now, or put their songs on a download site. Or make music videos for YouTube, as I've discovered recently.

Many of the songs collected in Sharp and RVW's time had filtered down from the music halls and theatres, so they were probably quite recently composed. I agree that the songs written today will become the trad songs of tomorrow - not all of them, but the good ones that tell a story or describe timeless human conditions and emotions that future listeners will be able to relate to, and have tunes and words that can be learned, taken away and sung again.

Incidentally there a lot of material that was collected in early 1900's but hasn't been published yet. The research isn't over yet...

Anahata