'Trad' means out of copyright, i.e the composer/author is not known (='anon') or has been dead for more than 70 years (e.g. O'Carolan). This means you can record the work without royalties being payable. However any responsible singer/player should make at least a small effort to find any maker, and then credit the same on any recording and in any live perfomance when reasonable and appropriate.

'The Tradition' is a strange concept that means different things to different people. Most feel it refers to a method of passing material from person to person by aural means only (with some sense of ownership impicit) which became larely defunct when audio recording was invented. When someone uses the phrase The Tradition we might assume they are referring to this process as it relates to their particular cultural preference, ethnic background or chosen geographic domicile. But not necessarily.

'Traditional' can therefore refer to either of the above situations - but also to other cultural activities which have some element of repetition and continuity, and are in some way cherished by a community. If a piece of music or song becomes associated with that activitity (e.g. 'Football's Coming Home') it may then be called traditional - though it may not be of The Tradition or Trad.

Also if a singer or player learns a piece by ear from another musician who does not pass on the writer's credit, or from a recording or from sheet music which incorrectly credits it as Trad, then that piece becomes Traditional by default (I've even heard Flanders and Swan credited thus). But that doesn't mean it's Trad, (c/f Fiddlers Green, Galway Farmer), or necessarily of The Tradition - though it if happens often enough it will become so eventually.

If a work is so old (how old depends on the individual making the judgment) that really no moral imperative survives for a credit to a known writer ('Greensleeves') then most would agree that the piece has become Traditional.

If a written or recorded music is correctly credited Trad, AND it has been passed on aurally, AND it's perty old, AND it has acquired cultural currency, THEN, and only then, are you SAFE to call it Traditional!

Clear?

Yours sincerely

PN4