S Furey writes

   I could not disagree more with [JLS's] opinion, particularly as 
   ballads are indeed used to accompany dances and are sung with 
   accompaniment and used as work songs, especially in Spain!

What do you mean "especially in Spain!". You're not under the impression
that Buenos Aires, Argentina, is in Spain, no? And where are you from, if I
may ask? I like to know, if I may, where people I am having disagreement
with come from. 

I ask because you seem to presuppose I should know about Spanish balladry,
and I actually don't. As a matter of fact, my extraction is Italian, but
know even less about Italian balladry (If only Sir Francesco Tosti had
composed any).

Don't worry, Beena Thomas. Of course what the Indian women sing are ballads!
And they must compare with Child's! My specialty (grand word that for the
little I know) is ENGLAND's balladry, and Child was a Scot, no? (j/k)

Ms Cohen notes that a def. of ballad need not include a ref. to the
PERFORMANCE of a ballad. That's controversial, no? esp. as per current lit.
criticism. I take the point that a ballad is not an epic. But wasn't the
prototypical ballad, in England, sung unaccompanied by a solo singer, who
improvised a bit as he or she went along? Or I am thinking of the folksong here?

What role did the COMMUNITY have in the process? 

I know there is a theory of the COMMUNAL origin of balladry (proposed by
some pre-Nazi German authors in the XIXth c), but being myself an avowed
liberal, I don't believe in such abstract notions as The community, or the
Spirit or Soul of a Nation, etc. and would rather think that one INDIVIDUAL
was involved, even if that individual's name never got registered - hey, one
point emphasised by Cecil Sharpe was that names of the individuals who sang
ballads and folksongs to him were properly registered as the authorised
sources as it were. Thus we know that it was a Mr. Taylor who first sang to
him "The Seeds of Love" in Somerset, etc. 

A COMMUNITY can hardly create a single line of poetry, can it, unless we
think of something a la an assembly where it is democratically decided what
words to fit in a line, one by one, till the assembly gets to the finished
product, the "ballad".

I'm not so much interested in ballads in general but, here, in the
definition of the ENGLISH ballad - or better, England's balladry. Were
English ballads ever danced to, or sung in chorus by a community (a la a
singalong?). Scotland's balladry may be different because the Celtic are a
more dancing people, no?

Best,

JL Speranza, Esq
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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