Of course..how could it be music without a good tune. It can be poetry I guess but who would want to listen to it.

I vote for not recycling tunes unless absolutely inescapable. Each song deserves its own tune but sometimes they jump onto a tune. Of course an untrained musician can write a great tune. I don't know how training can make you come up with better melodies. I suspect that some people are so inately gifted they could with no input whatsoever, but I suspect that most very good tunes..the tuner was exposed to a certain type of music from infancy and absorbed it and was able to recreate somewhat similar tunes when the time was right.

Also, sometimes, not always, when you put words to a beautiful tune it wrecks the tune from that point on.

Please no more lyrics for Star of the County Down. mg