| Description | Wishes to have more information as to the plans for and scope of proposed work before he goes further; had club merely intended exploratory inquiry or detailed investigation and collection with view to publication?; should both words and tunes be collected and should tunes and words already published be excluded; this might lead to items in obscure publications being overlooked or to confusion over tunes or words known by or published under different names; cites differences in airs known to him from versions in W. Christie's "Traditional Ballad Airs" (1876 and 1881); considers that the use by editors of "arrangements" of airs is too "elastic"; wonders if selection by Gavin Greig and James Bruce Duncan should be limited to songs gathered in north-east of Scotland, any not regarded as strictly traditional also being included if well known; James Bruce Duncan has listed 130 traditional songs and will meantime only transcribe air and one stanza of each until points raised are settled. |