There's no 'answer' to this because the situation is a muddle. Aurally transmitted music and written music are in constant interaction, and an inaccurate written version can be learnt and then passed on aurally so that it then becomes part of 'the tradition'.
A few examples: Out of a dozen or so written versions of Risty Gulley (aka Rusty Gulley - and that's anOTHer story) the one picked up in the 70s was Vickers', which is notated with a mixed 3/4 and 6/8 rhythm. It does make sense of a kind, but is an outlier, and just one example of Vickers' notational quirks which can perhaps only be spotted when seen in a larger context, which may then lead to a greater understanding of his other quirks. Had The Lass is another - it sounds OK with 1 # as written rather than 2 which is correct, but it's a simple mistake and easily corrected from other versions and from an understanding of the tune-type of which it is an example. Willy Taylor's more popular reels are almost never played with the same notes as he played them - and I mean the 'basic' tunes, before you get to work on personal variants or deviations - because the published versions are inaccurate in specific places, and more people have learnt them from the dots or from others who have learnt them from the dots than from Willy or his recordings. Many of the Northumbrian Minstrelsy pipe tunes are either inaccurate, or not the best versions that were available to the editors, who on occasion wrote utter twaddle (e.g. Rattlin Roarin Willie is a version of Tom Nokes' Jig, or Dorrington Lads is the same tune as My Dearie Sits Ower Late Up). Because of a misunderstanding which has passed into general currency All The Night I Lay With Jockey is often played with A drones despite being in G and being built on exactly the same chord sequence as Berwick Billy and Lads of Alnwick - yes, the last chord is A minor in each case, but it is not felt as the tonic. None of us has the whole picture. I am personally grateful that I was later able to correct some of the mistakes I made in my earlier Vickers edition. No doubt I missed some and made others I am still unaware of. The above examples are given to show that neither written nor aural sources can be expected to be reliable on every occasion, and we have to use our musical judgement, ears, taste, and experience, and in this we are all different, and liable to be right and wrong about different things. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
