One needs to recognise that the work that has gone into creating a tune or song (whether by "anon" or by a known composer), and the work that goes into performing it are both creative efforts. The end result will be a product of both, and both need to work for the result to be pleasing. Though the performer, coming later chronologically, has the final word in many ways, and can bugger up a decent piece, or elevate a mediocre one.

It would be wrong to hamstring any performer with rules about how to, and how not to, perform a piece. They must be given free reign in applying their own creativity to it, and they ought to be judged by the result, not by its adherence to rules.

By the way, I would include "dansability" (is there such a word?) in the rules that can be ignored, if the performer so chooses. Why not take a jig and slow it down in order to create a different effect? Or take a morris tune and speed it up, if this works musically?

Nobody is obliged to like the result, one is free to judge its merits according to their personal taste - and no one's taste can be an absolute measure. Majority taste decides commercial success, sure, but individual taste is enough to praise a performance.

Crossovers can be interesting. Pipe tunes are often played to great advantage on a hurdy-gurdy, and fiddle tunes on a tinwhistle. I asked Vicki Swan to play on smallpipes a riff written for (Greek) bouzouki, and you know what - it worked! I love some of the older North-Eastern (UK) songs, like "Oh, you are a mucky kid", but can't do them in their "home" accent or style; no worries, I found that the Epirus singing style suits them also. And so on.

Perhaps in this melting pot process we sacrifice some sort of purity, one might argue. I would counter that with the many benefits that the new blends can offer, the surprising new combinations and the creation of new, previously impossible to construct, music. As for the original versions, they need not disappear, in this age of multiple media choices for their preservation.

But even as we preserve the old (and I am all for it), let's also allow the freedom of expression to move us to new creative vistas.