If a tradition is something that is carried on IE a group of people meeting to do something every year at the same time,or wearing the same costumes for certain events or singing the same songs.
Then most of the old songs from history that have to be "discovered"
are not traditional..
If they had been in continuous use since the time they were composed they would be traditional.
But then no one would be needed to discover them would they?
I like a lot of the old tunes and songs that I hear at the brilliant Market Raisen Folk Club.
But I enjoy them for their value to me as part of the the audience,not because of where they came from.
If they were traditional in the sense that the word is applied to other things we would soon tire of hearing them and be on the look out for new material.
Possibly we would want to hear this new material performed in the style of the old.
Perhaps the style music is performed in could be described as traditional?
But then you would have to go back to the top of my posting and read through it all again swapping style for music each time you came to it.
I can tell you what is a new tradition though.
Starting threads that begin with ......
What is Traditional /Folk/etc
Have a nice day all.
Tim