For JimC-when I said that thing about songs starting, it would have been more useful had I said that each of those sources gave a reference point from which one, if they were of a mind, could view changes, dissemination, adaptation, and such things.

Larry Saidman--your long post above asked a good number of questions, any one of which would make an excellent research topic. With music, as with most things, it takes much less time to ask a question than to answer it.