Joyce,
Yes, we've been practicing ethno-centrism in this discussion. Someone early in this thread said they were discussing it in terms of English folk song, and we've all gone along with that. It is an idiom that most of us are deeply familiar with, so it makes conversation possible without needing to supply a constant barrage of qualifiers.

I hope most of us know that there are traditions that rely on NOT changing the music, just as there are traditions that rely on new music and traditions that rely on improvisation. I think the general point is that there is such a thing as traditional music, and it has some very specific attributes, even if those attributes are different from one tradition to the next.

The problem is that Suibhne O'Piobaireachd is apparently saying that all music is traditional music. The rest of us think that dilutes the concept of traditional music beyond the point of usefulness. He would have us think that the phrase "aboriginal traditional music" uses the word "traditional" in the same way as the sentence "The British Invasion bands of the 60s traditionally used two guitars, bass, and drums."