Note 15 — Introduction

To those who desire to follow in more detail the problem of the essence of the folk-tune, I commend Cecil Sharp’s English Folk-Song, Some Conclusions, especially chapters VI and VII. Despite Sharp’s having come to his “conclusions” thirty years ago and even though they are concerned with the folk-songs of the British Isles only, they have not, to my knowledge, been essentially altered by subsequent thought on the subject; and they apply, by and large, to American folk-tunes as well.