<snip>
Authenticity, in any of these cases, was not even a part of the
equation--traditional song [...] accorded a value and dignity that it
otherwise wouldn't have been felt to possess, by presentation as art song.
Some composers and performers carry the resulant music off successfully,
Ferrier among them
<snip>
I hope you won't mention Britten. Or, say, Ferrier's *Keel Row*.
Authenticity, even in situ, is difficult to pin down. In the way these
things go, I have been silently following (on another list) a discussion of
how Blind Willie McTell draws upon or ( as I suspect) both sends up and
builds upon Uncle Dave Macon.
<snip>
Myself, I usually prefer my folkmusic badly recorded in a cabin
somewhere--seriously--that satisfies my sense of authenticity.
<snip>
Which reminds me of Don van Vliet's bogus folk recordings, in ending one of
which the good Captain sings, wistfully:
'...
Me and my girl named Bimbo
Limbo
Spam'
[Cue fake scratch...]
And now a serious question. There are two blind ladies, street singers, who
have been recorded singing religious material in New York. I _think_ in
recent years. A cappella or accompanied by something very like a tin can.
One may be called Ginger and either she or her companion is a (self?)
ordained minister. From the tiny amount I have heard, they seem impressive.
I know no other details.
If anyone has the remotest idea what or whom I'm referring to, I'd love to
follow this up.
<snip>
There are counter-examples. Stephen Foster wrote art songs--not a single
banjo was ever strummed in his arrangements--which have more often than not
been treated as if they were folk songs
<snip>
Bunk Johnson's playing of George Lewis's arrangement of *Swanee* is, I
think, very fine: emotion caught in a heat haze, as it were. And, to a
lesser extent, *My Old Kentucky Home*. (Not a lot of singing in these, of
course.)
CW
__________________________________________
'I might have known you'd choose the easy way'
(Franz Kline's mother)
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