No, Grishka, my response was to the above statement that "Andrés Segovia Torres was the first to blow the lid off using a guitar for 'classical' music," implying that the guitar had not been used to play classical music before and that Segovia pioneered its use that way. In actuality, of course, the guitar as it evolved over the centuries had been used for "classical" or serious music right from the beginning.

This was the wall that I ran into when I first tried to enroll at the U. of W. School of Music. The Powers That Be there were under the impression that the guitar was used only by cowboys and jazz musicians—this, despite the fact that Segovia had done several concerts in Seattle and John Williams had performed at the U. of W.'s Meany Hall auditorium only a couple of months before I tried to register. It took Prof. John Verrall, armed with the results of my research (aided by information my classic guitar teacher had directed me to, a series of articles in "The Guitar Review," a prestigeous magazine published at the time by the New York Classic Guitar Society), to educate the rest of the music department.

My own approach to accompanying folk songs and ballads with a classic guitar is to tailor the accompaniment to the song. On something like "Greensleeves" (I sing only three of the eleventy-fourteen verses), I handle the guitar as if it were a lute, because the song seems to call for it. Some ballads, similarly. But I can also do a variety of "folk techniques," such as the "Carter Family scratch" and alternate bass or "Travis picking" styles—or dead-simple "Burl Ives basic." As I say, tailor the accompaniment to the song.

Just because one can do something on the guitar doesn't mean that one should. The accompaniment should "accompany" the song, not overpower it—or even draw any particular attention to itself.

As to the use of the piano to accompany folk songs. I think that a lot has to do with context. On one end, you have such manifestations as English contralto Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953) including folk songs and ballads in her recitals, with, of course, piano accompaniment. She sang the songs with taste and respect, and introduced a lot of people to that kind of music. Would that all classical singers who include folk songs in their recitals showed such taste.

One the other end, you have a few people gathered around a piano, singing songs from The Fireside Book of Folk Songs or the Lomaxes' Best Loved American Folk Songs, both of which contain piano accompaniments as well as guitar chords. So it's not on the front porch of a mountain cabin, nor on the front porch of the local township's general store. But it's still folk music.

By the way:   sometimes Lead Belly would set his 12-string guitar aside and play the piano. Most interesting style!!!

Don Firth