Here's a whacky alternative sort of way we can look at what constitutes "traditional" music. It's probably a little too kooky for most people to feel comfortable with, but I like it, so I'm posting it...

My Mirriam Webster's (admittedly not as elegant as the OED, but it's the one I've got) says with regard to the transmission of culture and knowlege:

tradition : the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction.

Now, what I want to know is this: who says the information and or customs that are being handed down have to be the individual songs or pieces themselves? Maybe the tradition isn't the song itself, but instead, it is the tradtional elements of a particular type of song or tune. So in that case, a song that is written recently, but that uses the elements of a particular tradition with regard to how such a song or tune is put together, would be considered a traditional song or tune.

This is certainly in keeping with what my friend told me about klezmer music, which is a tradition of making a particular kind of music. He said that a student of klezmer is discouraged from using printed music, and is encouraged to learn the feel of the music and of how the music is created, in order to be able to play it in the way it is traditionally played. And traditionally, klezmer involves a lot of improvisation. So when played in the traditional way, klezmer is always a new composition and each player makes it his or her own.

By using what seem like the most commonly articulated standards, of the piece itself being handed down, or the standards that the piece itself has to be old, or even just the idea that there has to be an entity that is recognizable as a particular song or piece with a name like maybe "Song for my Wooden Flute", maybe we're missing the point altogether. The point being that it's the tradition of the way the music is put together that makes it a part of a tradition rather than a particular song or tune being what constitutes a tradition.

And when looked at in that light, all those new songs or tunes that sound so convincingly like one particular tradition or another actually are traditional because the way they were created is in keeping with the tradition for that kind of music.

I like this definition so much, I think I'm going to adopt it as my own unless someone can give me a convincing reason why this should not be so.