Vic, i agree with you, i was using terminology that was used by Steve Gardham on facebook and i agree it is inappropriate.
To Continue
imo It beggars belief if anyone thinks ordinary people in Ireland and Scotland were any different from ordinary people in England when it comes to composing songs, next point, where did the tradtional songs come from that were written prior to the advent of the printing presses, perhaps ordinary people as well as troubadours and court musicians also composed some of the songs , to say that 95percent of trd songs, were the result OF broadside COMPOSERS, also to suggest that only 5 percent of the English traditional repertoire dates from PRE printing presses is unproven .
Also it is well documented that ordinary people particularly fisherfolk travelled between Scotland Ireland and England Passing on songs. I know someone who collected songs from Harry Cox who was told[ by Harry] that he learned a song by ear from an itinerant irish farm labourer, a considerable number of traditional singers[Irish Scottish and English] were very good at picking up melodies and words by ear QUICKLY.
as an aside,I have noticed how good older people who are catholics[ scottish english and irish] are, at remembering long stories words and learning by ear