Mr. Doubleday takes great pains to prove his sophistication. Even allowing for how the sense of some of the words used have changed since he wrote them, it appears that Doubleday was not enthusiastic about the NSP or NSPipers in general. So, are we to trust his judgement overall? On the one hand we have a tradition with "sentimental" waltzes and airs, most of which post-date Doubleday, Jack Armstrong's sort of thing. On the other hand, it's difficult to agree with him about "delicacy of expression", keys, or "sentimental airs" after listening to Chris Ormston's recording of "The Blackbird" on SPIRIT OF THE BORDER CD, to name but one example.
I would like to know more about the cultural context of the document. What prompted Doubleday to write this? To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
