ITMA has a definition and 15 points that distinguish traditional from folk or ballad, liook in Vallely's 'Companion' I guess I think Steve was being a bit facetious in asking the question, individual traditional songs &r tunes are various ages, and though many would balk at including Tom Moore's songs, the airs he used everyone plays and they are, often, traditional. Has Yankee Doodle become a traditional song and the originally composed version it replaced is just an old song that noone sings anymore?