You know I find it really sad how musicians largely ignore some lovely Welsh tunes. Fortunately (and God bless 'em) duos and bands like Toreth are reintroducing us to some lovely pieces. Not that I am knocking Irish or Scottish or any other traditional music - it's terrific stuff and I for one would be lost without it. But (and maybe because it is the music of my homeland) there is something that moves the hairs on my neck whenever I hear tunes like Riil Cymraeg Llanofer
So when you are next in that session why not help keep Welsh traditional music and introduce a Welsh jig (the Bishop of Bangor maybe or even the very well known Lord Caernarfon), or quite honestly - anything!
Much of Welsh traditional music is really quite enchanting but almost always missed by it's more popular Celtic brothers and sisters. We as musicians have been given a gift to play music but with it comes a responsibility to keep traditional music alive. So please let's not be blinkered and look exclusively to Ireland or Scotland but let's expand our horizons to encompass the full Celtic tradition.
I have had a look and there is very little here - look for a hornpipe called Allt--y-caethiwed, another called Y Dynwr both of which are suitable for beginners and very 'catchy'.
A good source point as well is http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com/tunes.htm but some of the tunes are incomplete and you will need to dig a little. Also Toreth have a couple of free MP3's on their website and with the right software and some patience you can soon create an ABC file. Bryhyfryd is a personal favourite.
I think I volunteered myself to supplying some Welsh music ... guess I forgot the first lesson I learned back home in Swansea - never volunteer for anything!
Like with Galician and Asturian and Cornish and Manx, there is a pinch of each on site here, but like with Welsh, they also have their own 'dedicated' online areas, it being primarily an Irish site, but one that is cosmopolitan in it's approach?!
NOTE: There are a number of "WELSH ONLY" sessions in Cymru / Wales, where narry a note of anything else is played, or at least they'd like to think so. In my mind, simply giving an old air a Welsh name doesn't rob it of it's melodic heritage... We have had similar waves of tyranny with regards to things 'Irish' and 'Scottish', including on site here... I even have friends that in their heart and passion would like to excise every English borrowing out of their language ~ Welsh, Irish, Breton, French, Accadian ~ ~ ~ and on, and on, and on...
Has that bottle made the rounds yet, isn't it my turn. Dow, damned you, yuh bastard, you've glugged it all. Come on lasses and lads, let's get squeeze some of our share out of the pip squeak...
~ Open up the window let some air into this room,
I think i'm almost choking from the smell of stale perfume,
And the cigarette your smoking, bout to scare me half to death,
Open up the window let me catch my breath.
Mamma told me not come
Mamma told me not come
She said,
That aint the way to have fun-son
That aint the way to have fun-son ~
Surely the most important source for welsh music is the Robert ap Huw Manuscript. This contains a large body of harp music written down in the 17th century although much of the music is certainly much older. It is very relevent to the Irish and Scottish traditions also. The manuscript is incomplete but the index shows a large body of tunes in the "Irish tuning", but these are all lost. Some of the other pieces bear a strong resemblance to Pibroch. Although the Welsh tradition has not survived like the Irish and Scottish this manuscript and it's interpretation are certainly at the cutting edge of traditional music today. Harper Paul Dooleys latest CD is a brilliant example consisting entirely of pieces from the manuscript.
My experience (in Wales) of Welsh Trad is that it just isn't played enough to get a real living tradition going. There are few sessions where Welsh is preferred to Irish and 20 years ago I was going to sessions in Cardiff which folded because either there was conflict between the musicians - some wanting to play Irish, some Welsh, and because of musicians not wanting to play with other particular instruments, or the third factor of unsupportive landlords. It hasn't progressed much since then, you still find the same handful of people playing and the same faces pushing themselves forwards as representative of Welsh music. Until people get off their arses and get out playing the change will continue to be slow.
For most of us, it's Charlotte Church and Cerys Matthews. The rest of it's somewhere in hiding behind these daughters of the dragon - we know it's there, but it doesn't very often seem to want to peep out. Still, I hope I'll check out some of the tune threads. I remember a duo called Calennig from South Wales who did the folk clubs in the '80's and were really impressive: the female partner (Pat Smith?) was one of those Welsh girl singers who could sing both extremely well and extremely loudly. Maybe the Welsh are really Bulgarians. It's their singing that I think of as the supreme element in their musical culture - the rest might just be commentary.
Welsh Traditional Music
Welsh Traditional Music
You know I find it really sad how musicians largely ignore some lovely Welsh tunes. Fortunately (and God bless 'em) duos and bands like Toreth are reintroducing us to some lovely pieces. Not that I am knocking Irish or Scottish or any other traditional music - it's terrific stuff and I for one would be lost without it. But (and maybe because it is the music of my homeland) there is something that moves the hairs on my neck whenever I hear tunes like Riil Cymraeg Llanofer
So when you are next in that session why not help keep Welsh traditional music and introduce a Welsh jig (the Bishop of Bangor maybe or even the very well known Lord Caernarfon), or quite honestly - anything!
Much of Welsh traditional music is really quite enchanting but almost always missed by it's more popular Celtic brothers and sisters. We as musicians have been given a gift to play music but with it comes a responsibility to keep traditional music alive. So please let's not be blinkered and look exclusively to Ireland or Scotland but let's expand our horizons to encompass the full Celtic tradition.
# Posted on July 24th 2006 by WelshGuy
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
I agree. Is there a list of tunes you would recommend?
# Posted on July 24th 2006 by feardearg
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
Are any of those tunes here on TheSession? Could you submit them?
# Posted on July 24th 2006 by Pere
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
I have had a look and there is very little here - look for a hornpipe called Allt--y-caethiwed, another called Y Dynwr both of which are suitable for beginners and very 'catchy'.
A good source point as well is http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com/tunes.htm but some of the tunes are incomplete and you will need to dig a little. Also Toreth have a couple of free MP3's on their website and with the right software and some patience you can soon create an ABC file. Bryhyfryd is a personal favourite.
I think I volunteered myself to supplying some Welsh music ... guess I forgot the first lesson I learned back home in Swansea - never volunteer for anything!
# Posted on July 24th 2006 by WelshGuy
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
Anyone interested in Welsh tunes might get some ideas from these old threads:
Welsh tunes - what should we play:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/9559/comments#comment202212
Welsh Tunes:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1348/comments#comment21914
Welsh Traditional Music:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1150/comments#comment17978
Welsh tunes/Welsh members?:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/3960/comments#comment205764
# Posted on July 24th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
If you put 'Ymdaith' into a search you'll find a few marches, for example, and there is information and links in the 'comments':
"Ymdaith Caerffili"
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on June 4th 2005 by ceolachan.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/4558/
Like with Galician and Asturian and Cornish and Manx, there is a pinch of each on site here, but like with Welsh, they also have their own 'dedicated' online areas, it being primarily an Irish site, but one that is cosmopolitan in it's approach?!
Iechyd dda i chi gyd!!!
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
NOTE: There are a number of "WELSH ONLY" sessions in Cymru / Wales, where narry a note of anything else is played, or at least they'd like to think so. In my mind, simply giving an old air a Welsh name doesn't rob it of it's melodic heritage... We have had similar waves of tyranny with regards to things 'Irish' and 'Scottish', including on site here... I even have friends that in their heart and passion would like to excise every English borrowing out of their language ~ Welsh, Irish, Breton, French, Accadian ~ ~ ~ and on, and on, and on...
Has that bottle made the rounds yet, isn't it my turn. Dow, damned you, yuh bastard, you've glugged it all. Come on lasses and lads, let's get squeeze some of our share out of the pip squeak...
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
bah bah bah bah barbera-anne,
Sorry I couldnt help one Jones
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by Ripthecalico
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
He didn't sing that did he? Let me go check the collection...
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
~ Open up the window let some air into this room,
I think i'm almost choking from the smell of stale perfume,
And the cigarette your smoking, bout to scare me half to death,
Open up the window let me catch my breath.
Mamma told me not come
Mamma told me not come
She said,
That aint the way to have fun-son
That aint the way to have fun-son ~
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
Give me Cerys Matthews...the Cardigans...the Stereophonics...
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
Surely the most important source for welsh music is the Robert ap Huw Manuscript. This contains a large body of harp music written down in the 17th century although much of the music is certainly much older. It is very relevent to the Irish and Scottish traditions also. The manuscript is incomplete but the index shows a large body of tunes in the "Irish tuning", but these are all lost. Some of the other pieces bear a strong resemblance to Pibroch. Although the Welsh tradition has not survived like the Irish and Scottish this manuscript and it's interpretation are certainly at the cutting edge of traditional music today. Harper Paul Dooleys latest CD is a brilliant example consisting entirely of pieces from the manuscript.
# Posted on July 25th 2006 by brendan ring
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
Ceri Matthews flute album is listed here
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/2087
and on the web he has a lot of abcs of the tunes at
http://yscolan.blogspot.com/
# Posted on July 31st 2006 by LH
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
My experience (in Wales) of Welsh Trad is that it just isn't played enough to get a real living tradition going. There are few sessions where Welsh is preferred to Irish and 20 years ago I was going to sessions in Cardiff which folded because either there was conflict between the musicians - some wanting to play Irish, some Welsh, and because of musicians not wanting to play with other particular instruments, or the third factor of unsupportive landlords. It hasn't progressed much since then, you still find the same handful of people playing and the same faces pushing themselves forwards as representative of Welsh music. Until people get off their arses and get out playing the change will continue to be slow.
(***Runs off to hide from other Welsh players***)
# Posted on September 9th 2006 by Torgwen
Re: Welsh Traditional Music
For most of us, it's Charlotte Church and Cerys Matthews. The rest of it's somewhere in hiding behind these daughters of the dragon - we know it's there, but it doesn't very often seem to want to peep out. Still, I hope I'll check out some of the tune threads. I remember a duo called Calennig from South Wales who did the folk clubs in the '80's and were really impressive: the female partner (Pat Smith?) was one of those Welsh girl singers who could sing both extremely well and extremely loudly. Maybe the Welsh are really Bulgarians. It's their singing that I think of as the supreme element in their musical culture - the rest might just be commentary.
# Posted on September 9th 2006 by nicholas