With regards to a work being credited as Trad. Arr., should this imply that the point of refernce is a written source? But what about where the araangement is an arrangement of somebody elses arrangement, then should the work be credited as trad arr arr?
There are examples of this in recordings of shanties where a previous arrangment has been taken as gospel and other performaers have recorded the arranged tune as opposed to the written sources.
An example of this id Yaller Gals/Doodle Let Me Go - the three written sources Hugill/Sharp/and I think Terry give more or less the same tune and recorded versions tend to use antoehr tune more or less the same.
So, if a song is recorded by 'c' who learned it from a recording 'b' who in turn got it from a recording by 'a' who got it from source material, and if 'b' and 'c' have not referred back to source, should it be credited as trad. arr a. arr. b. arr. c. - assuming it is traditional....
That also raises another question - to what extent are written sources arranged by the compiler?