I would be quite interested to see the results of this question. I've only an American viewpoint, and have been flummoxed by bands having tunes even TITLED "- -so and so-- Polka " be written out as 4/4. Hornpipes "played as a reel" with the lilt smoothed out, reels played as schottishes, slowed down with a lilt added... It gets confusing in categorization. I've danced and played the music for English (Playford to modern) and contradance, and played lots of Irish and Scottish Ceili dance tunes.

The idea of Irish dancing competition formalizing the playing of sorts of tunes makes sense to me. In American dancing, while a jig or a reel works for most contra dances, a square dance must be a reel. From what I hear here, the 4/4 polka/ reel/ hornpipe/ schottishes continuum gets differentiated by where the emphasis is placed. I hope someone more well schooled than I can be more specific.

Joanne in Cleveland