The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #163005 Message #3884344
Posted By: Jackaroodave
24-Oct-17 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: The Oral Tradition
Subject: RE: The Oral Tradition
The dictionaries and usages I'm familiar with--like GedFox--contrast "oral" with "written." But doesn't the current controversy largely concern face-to-face vs. mediated oral transmission?
An "oral agreement," for example, can be reached over the telephone--even a cell phone, which is a radio--Skype, or, presumably, by exchange of tapes, podcasts, or youtube clips. And oral transmission of songs composed by the folk persists in these ways.
However, I'm guessing the framers of the 1954 folk music definition tacitly interpreted "oral tradition" as directly from mouth to ear and may (I don't know) have considered transmission by contemporary recordings or live broadcasts grounds for disqualification.