Yup. I'll never forget Darryl Hall saying that music is a continuum, which is why most of the times he allows his Hall & Oates sounds to be sampled by Rap artists ..
We don't know who wrote "Rolling Down to Old Maui" or "Drunken Sailor," other than that they were popular in the 19th century. They both share tunes with other songs that predate them, just like how there are multiple songs that use the same tune as "The Wearing of the Green." Countless people have performed and rearranged them, and the world only benefits from it.
Everything in art is inherently memetic, building upon the work of others and evolving.
"Until the people sing them, the songs, songs are not, and when the people sing them, then nobody knows the author.
Try that your songs end up with the people, even if they stop being yours to belong to others.
That, by melting the heart in the people soul, what is lost in name one gains in eternity."