Reply to The Sandman,

I wasn't responding to your post. (Is there a way to reply to particular posts in this forum? It seems to me things are just ordered chronologically.) I was just working through my own views on folk versus art song. My thoughts tend to be rather chaotic, hence perhaps also my post.

My discussion of opera was to support that it isn't just that I am adverse to formality. It is DESPITE my appreciation of opera, I found the Vaughn Williams song incongruous and preposterous to he point that I was so preoccupied that I couldn't actually listen, DESPITE my familiarity of opera. (Besides, my understanding is that it was actually an art song, not a folk song, so I cannot criticize it on the basis of being divorced from its tradition.)

I do often want to know the background of a song. I cannot say that I find it a requirement to my enjoyment of a song. (In fact, I am distressed at my newly acquired knowledge regarding the origins of Danny Boy and other familiar "Irish" songs.) I also am interested in music I am unfamiliar with to broaden my knowledge.

In conclusion, I would suppose ALL music has roots in the vernacular. My theory (with absolutely no background to support it) is that music preceded language and functioned as a social "glue." When we started pounding on logs rather than one another's heads, we could develop cooperation and culture.

And once again, I find myself trying to order the jumble of thoughts that coexist in my chaotic mind. High time I accomplished something useful!