Very interesting thread.

I suppose tunes are treated differently from songs in the folk context because, for one thing, they're a lot less easy to recognise and categorise. With a song, you only have to hear the first word or the title and you know what song it is. A tune will sound different on a different instrument or at a different speed. Also, while words of songs are very often passed on or learned in the written form, tunes are very often passed on aurally.

All this means that tunes are perhaps more easily subjected to the "folk process", in the way they get tangled up together and edited into sets. Difficult or unexpected sequences of notes can get smoothed out by players, and the keys can change to suit different instruments.

I think that when a tune is in a traditional dance rhythm and is easily learned by session players and dance bands, it can very quickly become part of the traditional repertoire, even though it may still be in copyright.

The tunes that don't do this so easily are the "party-piece" tunes - those that only work on one sort of instrument, or that rely on a sophisticated riff or chord sequence. They may be excellent tunes, but if they don't sit well within sets of dance tunes, and are not accessible to a range of instruments and playing styles, they are probably not going to be regarded and treated as traditional in the same way.

I'm not saying that any of this defines what is or is not "traditional" (which could jst end up as another circular discussion), I'm just pointing out a few characteristics of the ways in which tunes are assimilated into the tradition (or not).

And Les (above) - yes, I think we who meet in pubs to play music, are a part of a living tradition. Tunes and songs, in our hands, are being rediscovered, shared around and kept alive, and are evolving all the time. We use extra methods of transmission that weren't available until recently, but people have always used all the means and instruments at their disposal. We shouldn't regard ourselves as second-rate or vicarious musicians and singers just because no roving collector on a bicycle has recorded us in our kitchens. We are furthering the tradtition and should be proud of that.

Marje