Subject: RE: Is traditional song finished?
From: Goose Gander - PM
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 01:12 PM

Mr./Ms. Ralphie -

Sorry, but you are the one who misses the point.

No I think Ralphie has a point. I agree that the term "Source Singer" is used in the folk music world as meaning the person from whom the [version of] the song was first collected, but they are not a true source. That has to be the person who first wrote the song which, for much of the time, we do not know.

I prefer to think of source singers as representing a snapshot in time. They give you an idea of the song and its mode of performance by a particular person at a particular time. I am not saying this is unimportant, the recordings made of these singers are extremely important, but they do not tell us about the song in the generations before that particular person nor about subsequent changes to the song. The latter we will know about and modes of performance have changed over time and certainly did in the generations before the "Source singer" was recorded. These latter changes we do not know about, nor ever will unless someone invents a Tardis.