Greg, are you wilfully mis-understandig hrh's point? They have not said Northumbrian music is not English, never mind Northumberland isn't part of England. They have not said Northumbrian music doesn't count. They have not said only southern music is English. They made it plain that they were asking about the existence of tunes which were neither Northumbrian, (which is widely known to have a rich tradition of slow airs), slowed-down dance tunes or song tunes. In other words, what slow airs are there from the rest of England?

They have made the very valid point that, outside of the Northumbrian pipe-influenced tradition, there is little evidence of English slow airs which are neither song tunes nor slowed down dance tunes.

This is something I have noticed and wondered about for some considerable time.

Perhaps we could now stop getting angry about something which was never said in the first place and answer these questions - what is the distribution of slow airs throughout England, other than Northumbria's rich,vibrant, well-known and well-respected and undoubtedly English tradition, and if there are very few, particularly in the south, why is this?