This is one for any experts on Welsh traditional music out there. I've just spotted a notice over on the Comhaltas site at http://comhaltas.ie/events/detail/the_best_of_welsh_trad_in_cois_na_habhna/ that this band from Wales is coming to Cois na hAbhna at the end of September. I must admit I've never heard of a "twmpath" Band and wonder if anyone can enlighten us on the matter - maybe it's just Welsh for Céilí Band!
Twmpath is a word meaning a hump. At one time it signified the mound on the village green where the musicians sat and played for the community to dance, and today it has come to mean the event itself... a raucous, hot night of traditional steps and modern ideas washed down with a heady blend of alcohol and pheromones.
It is astonishing how the generic use of the Irish/Gallic word 'ceili(dh)' has proliferated in recent years. I've heard people refer to an 'English ceilidh', 'French ceilidh', Breton, Welsh, even a 'Klezmer ceilidh'! I play in a 'ceilidh band' based in Wales, playing tunes from all over - English, Irish, Scots, Shetland, Welsh, Galician, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, French, Slovenian, American - although most of the dances we play for are English and a few Scots (This happens to be the choice of most of the callers we work with) - yet we call ourselves a 'ceilidh band' because everyone knows what it means. (if we were to use the word 'twmpath', people would assume we specialized in traditional Welsh music and dance).
So, it's refreshing to see the Welsh language using its own, organic (i.e. not borne out of national affectation) word.
For the record, the proper Yiddish word is 'Tantshoyz' (lit. 'dance-house').
"a raucous, hot night of traditional steps and modern ideas washed down with a heady blend of alcohol and pheromones" - sounds a lot more exciting than the more conventional nights of tea and sets! Seriously though, thanks to everyone for your contributions - just one final point, the first part of the word is lacking in vowels so can anyone provide a phonetic indication as to what "twmpath" actually sounds like?
A modern Welsh invention. Social gatherings in Wales for the purpose of dancing and drinking and singing were called noson llawen (pleasant evenings).'Toompath' is the nearest I can get,but the oo is pronounced halfway between toom and tum.It doesn't sound like the oo on doom. An English ceilidh,I ask you!.They used to be called dances.My Glaswegian mam used to call it going to the jigging.Niel Munro in his Vtial Spark stories (circa 1910) always called it a ball.
Thanks dafydd, now I'm fully enlightened. I hadn't taken michaelr's earlier comment seriously but he wasn't too far off the mark if you put a "T" before the "Oompah".
OK - perhaps it's not quite as 'organic' as I thought, Dafydd.
But, if I am not mistaken, the current usage of the word 'ceili(dh)' (i.e. to mean 'a social dance party') did not become the norm until well into the 20th Century. In parts of Scotland and Ulster, it was a verb, meaning something like 'to make a social visit' - which may or may not have involved music and dance.
Quite right,ceildh meant a social visit.The Welsh bands can call their dances anything they like,but don't claim any history for the word twmpath.English ceilidh I find faintly amusing,you may as well have an English Japanese Tea Ceremony.
Hee hee! Reminds one of when the Gaelic League first appropriated the word.
"The 'ceilidh' is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems and ballads, are rehearsed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums are put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are related and discussed."
—Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica, 1900, tome I, p. xxviii.
The English have long appropriated the Welsh "eisteddfod" (pl. "eisteddfodau") for their music competitions. The word, which comes from "eistedd" ("to sit") and "bod" ("to be"), literally means "a session". In Wales it has much more of a festival of the arts, but with competitions, as opposed to the more restricted competition-based English version.
What's a "twmpath" Band?
What's a "twmpath" Band?
This is one for any experts on Welsh traditional music out there. I've just spotted a notice over on the Comhaltas site at http://comhaltas.ie/events/detail/the_best_of_welsh_trad_in_cois_na_habhna/ that this band from Wales is coming to Cois na hAbhna at the end of September. I must admit I've never heard of a "twmpath" Band and wonder if anyone can enlighten us on the matter - maybe it's just Welsh for Céilí Band!
# Posted on September 7th 2009 by Bannerman
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
You could try googling for twmpath band.
I did.
Now I know what it means.
# Posted on September 7th 2009 by showaddydadito
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
Twmpath today means a Welsh Ceilidh band, plaing Welsh dance music, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twmpath for the origins of the name.
# Posted on September 7th 2009 by cathycook
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
Twmpath is a word meaning a hump. At one time it signified the mound on the village green where the musicians sat and played for the community to dance, and today it has come to mean the event itself... a raucous, hot night of traditional steps and modern ideas washed down with a heady blend of alcohol and pheromones.
# Posted on September 7th 2009 by Lurcherjohn
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
It is astonishing how the generic use of the Irish/Gallic word 'ceili(dh)' has proliferated in recent years. I've heard people refer to an 'English ceilidh', 'French ceilidh', Breton, Welsh, even a 'Klezmer ceilidh'! I play in a 'ceilidh band' based in Wales, playing tunes from all over - English, Irish, Scots, Shetland, Welsh, Galician, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, French, Slovenian, American - although most of the dances we play for are English and a few Scots (This happens to be the choice of most of the callers we work with) - yet we call ourselves a 'ceilidh band' because everyone knows what it means. (if we were to use the word 'twmpath', people would assume we specialized in traditional Welsh music and dance).
So, it's refreshing to see the Welsh language using its own, organic (i.e. not borne out of national affectation) word.
For the record, the proper Yiddish word is 'Tantshoyz' (lit. 'dance-house').
# Posted on September 7th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
It's a typo for "oompah band".
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by michaelr
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
"a raucous, hot night of traditional steps and modern ideas washed down with a heady blend of alcohol and pheromones" - sounds a lot more exciting than the more conventional nights of tea and sets! Seriously though, thanks to everyone for your contributions - just one final point, the first part of the word is lacking in vowels so can anyone provide a phonetic indication as to what "twmpath" actually sounds like?
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by Bannerman
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
A modern Welsh invention. Social gatherings in Wales for the purpose of dancing and drinking and singing were called noson llawen (pleasant evenings).'Toompath' is the nearest I can get,but the oo is pronounced halfway between toom and tum.It doesn't sound like the oo on doom. An English ceilidh,I ask you!.They used to be called dances.My Glaswegian mam used to call it going to the jigging.Niel Munro in his Vtial Spark stories (circa 1910) always called it a ball.
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by dafydd
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
English ceilidh,oxymoron anyone?
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by dafydd
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
bal folk.
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by Mina the Fiddler
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
William Owen Pughe's Welsh-Eglish dictionary,1832.
http://books.google.be/books?id=5gMGAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA591&ots=TVl45y6eFX&dq=twmpath%20in%20welsh%20literature&hl=en&pg=PA591#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Used as a synonym for games in 1832,not a mention of music
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by dafydd
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
Thanks dafydd, now I'm fully enlightened. I hadn't taken michaelr's earlier comment seriously but he wasn't too far off the mark if you put a "T" before the "Oompah".
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by Bannerman
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
"A modern Welsh invention."
OK - perhaps it's not quite as 'organic' as I thought, Dafydd.
But, if I am not mistaken, the current usage of the word 'ceili(dh)' (i.e. to mean 'a social dance party') did not become the norm until well into the 20th Century. In parts of Scotland and Ulster, it was a verb, meaning something like 'to make a social visit' - which may or may not have involved music and dance.
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
Quite right,ceildh meant a social visit.The Welsh bands can call their dances anything they like,but don't claim any history for the word twmpath.English ceilidh I find faintly amusing,you may as well have an English Japanese Tea Ceremony.
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by dafydd
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
Hee hee! Reminds one of when the Gaelic League first appropriated the word.
"The 'ceilidh' is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems and ballads, are rehearsed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums are put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are related and discussed."
—Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica, 1900, tome I, p. xxviii.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9ilidh#History
# Posted on September 8th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
The English have long appropriated the Welsh "eisteddfod" (pl. "eisteddfodau") for their music competitions. The word, which comes from "eistedd" ("to sit") and "bod" ("to be"), literally means "a session". In Wales it has much more of a festival of the arts, but with competitions, as opposed to the more restricted competition-based English version.
# Posted on September 9th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
"it is", not "it has"
# Posted on September 9th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: What's a "twmpath" Band?
its the same as a barndance or ceilidh. A gatherinb of people to dance and make merry!
# Posted on September 28th 2009 by sianfiddle