I find it interesting that newly written tunes are more easily subsumed into the tradition than are songs. Tunes by the likes of, for example, Phil Cunningham, Jay Ungar or Ronald Cooper sit easily within the repertoires of traditional players.

Is it due to the extent that the tunes utilise the structures, cadences and keys of traditional music?

Is it due to the fact that the best of them have become part of the currency of sessions and so are actively traditional?

Is it due to their continued practical use, i.e. dancers need dance tunes, pipers need pipe tunes?

What does anyone else think?