Yes, Dafydd Monks started up a site that he hopes will be the thesession.org of Welsh music. I wonder how they're getting along? http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com
I can understand why the Welsh always want to always be so difficult - sorry, dee-ffee-coolt. Or is it DDhuh-vvhuh-caaHlltt? And I love you guys for it....ooops...am I allowed to gate crash a welsh thread? Och well, now that I'm here, ye's might as well get yased to idea.
I'm not sure of the purpose of this thread, but if you did a search, ye'll find enough welsh people, many great contributors to this site, lurking here or nearby.
Hi Wendy
I'm one of them (half Welsh but not that you'd really notice!)- been living in Ceredigion for 4 years. Don't think much of Lord of the Flies Welsh accent but he sounds friendly! : ) !! (dim prob!)I love WTM and have been learning tunes on flute - probably not a good thing to say here but..... I prefer it to ITM although it comes a pretty close 2nd!! I'm also registered on the Welsh trad site Zina mentioned. There's not so much traffic on discussions but quite a lot of tunes and it's definately worth a visit.
Max, I'm sorely disappointed not to see my name in your list ("weep")
Not to worry, mere residency or holidays in Wales is not of itself sufficient to classify someone as Welsh. I think there's a better result (i.e. it includes me ) if you search for "Welsh" in the members list http://www.thesession.org/members/index.php?name=Welsh
Of course, this won't catch those members who don't mention their nationality in their bio, but short of Jeremy requiring every member to state their nationality as a condition of membership we're not going to get much closer
Trevor
I keep looking for sessions in Gwynedd, but haven't found any. Can you help?
Danny - Welcome to Taffy's Session, nice to have you on crash in. Do you want to sit near the fire, or shall we go home?
Osblob - "Don't think much of Lord of the Flies Welsh accent but he sounds friendly! : ) !! (dim prob!)" - Fantastic. The bi-lingual ambiguity of the "(dim prob)" is wonderful - but is it intentional?
The last town (near Philadelphia) I lived in was Bryn Mawr. Apparantly the Welsh settled there years ago. Now I live 2 down or so east of that--in Ardmore. I gues that's Irish for "high hill", right?
S'mae Wendy.
I'm not Welsh but spent many childhood holidays in Cricieth and discovered the best Ice cream in the world made by Cadwalader.
Ah the long walk to Black Rock Sands and then the fishing with orange line wooden frame and limpet bate.
Yes I know the meaning hiraeth http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3561173.stm
"..., mere residency or holidays in Wales is not of itself sufficient to classify someone as Welch."
First, I understand the point. However, although I am a multi-generation American the Dutch descendents where I live (near Holland, Michigan) consider me to be Welch, although my mother is of Dutch descent. To my Irish (descent) friends, I am an Englishman!
Zina, thanks for the link to the Welsh music site. Very interesting.
Things are going well - it's been very busy in traffic, and a lot of people have contacted me offering their thanks for putting it online - people have found the music and are playing it - but no new tunes in a while, and the whole site is going to go fully automatic later this summer.
Dave - yes the bi-lingual ambiguity is intentional - its 'normal speak' round here - English words crop up in welsh usage - although I must admit I'm quite slow learning welsh as it is a very hard language to learn - but I keep at it because I want to understand the songs because the songs often have the rhythm of the music due to that wonderful other Welsh skill of the Bards and the strange meters in the poetry!
Joe, thanks for the correction on "Ardmore" the funny thing is, Ardmore, if it is up on a hill of some sort, it's a very small one, hardly detectable at all. Maybe the founder of this town was from Ardmore in Ireland, and just named it after his home town.
Thank you for all these replies...Welsh is my first language, though had many years abroad....there's a chapel in Caernarfon Gwynedd commemorating the people who moved to Patagonia. I've logged on to your site Dafydd..Thank you Zina for directing me to it. I'll have to try and figure out how to submit tunes...I have loads and loads of Welsh tunes...some old books going back years..some of them I really like. Cadwaladr ice cream is good...I'm trying to think where the town you mean near Harlech is...not far from me either...Bryn Mawr means big hill. Some Welsh tunes are also Irish..evolved from tunes played at sea..or even Jamaican I read somewhere...harking back to the mercantile era...There are sessions in Gwynedd...Welsh and Irish in Bangor on Friday nights and on one Monday once a month but I can never remember which. I'll try and find out...in the Newborough in Bontnewydd near Caernarfon, on a Thursday night...attendance varies..also started by Cass Meurig and Idris..the Vaynol in Nant Peris..once a month I think day under review. I'd love to hear some Patagonian tunes...must be some someone who knows a few...Quite a lot of people here go on trips to the 'Wladfa'.. Diolch i chi eto...Thank you again...Wendy
Along with Lithuanian, isn't Welsh the oldest *surviving* Indo-European language?
I highlighted surviving, meaning more or less remaining in the form that people spoke maybe 2-3000 years ago. English deffo doesn't fall into that category, neither do Scots or Irish Gaelic - they've been continuously evolving, as is evident by the fact that they are now regarded as separate tongues, after possibly 1500 years separation. Strangely enough, even up till the 18th century, the lowland Scots reffered to their highland countrymen (and women) as the fighting highland Irish.
Anyway, back to the Welsh. Years ago I got half-way through (and regret not finishing it, but it was written in such dramatic overdone victorian prose, that it was so easily put-down-able) this wierd victorian book about how the ritual of Death cults came from Africa some several thousand years ago. Yer man reckoned that this idea of how you deal with your dead relatives was the basis of civilisation. The notion of preserving them went east to Egypt - hence mummies. Remember, 7-8000 years ago, desertification of the area we now think of as the Sahara had only just started, so people could bouldly go etc.
Jesus Christ was burnt after his death. This is true. There was this Welshman who christened his (I think) stillborn son Jesus Christ. Yer man was a religious fanatic, and he cremated his stillborn waif. So started the cult of cremation. Prior to that the dead were always buried. And up until the mid 19 century in churchyards. Then they got full up and then cemetries started to appear in the suburbs.
I digress. The druids had some death cult. It had to do with the preservation of bodies. The druids of course were the high priests of the ancient Celts. Nowadays they get a bad press. Human sacrifice and all that. But at least they were'nt as bad as the Incas or Aztecs - especially the aztecs.And that's another story - remind me to tell you that one sometime. But they (Druids) were in fact merely exponents of a branch of a more ancient indo-european pantheistic religion.
(another small hijack - religion - from the Latin re-ligare = to bind again, ie to make people bound together as one again.
Sectarian - from sectare, to cut, divide, etc, as in dissect, section, segment, saw.
So: sectarian + religion? ---- Geezabrek!)
You might of course, wish to explore who were there in Europe before the Indo-European blow-ins. There's no one linguistic theory uniting them dudes. Of the 3 big remaining literate pre-indo-european groups, those being, obviously,no 1, Basques, but also Etruscans and then the Minoans (on Crete). But these guys had actual civilisations, ie, cities and governments, and civic authority,etc, but yet they didn't know how to melt metal into a shape they required. Also, these guys were even wierder. heard of trepanation? Cut out holes in your skull - common practice. Logical. Lets out demons.
***Sowwwiftly*** getting back on topic....
Mebbe 7000 years ago - peanuts, lets face it, we started to respect our dead, by embalming them. THis idea was reputed to have travelled up from Morocco, been taken up by the Iberocelts...then ended up in Ireland. One theory suggests that because *Irish* (and therefore by default, Scottish Gaelic, rather the whole Gaelic language group, as opposed to Brythonnic) is so different from other celtic tongues that it has different origins..ie by way of the Iberian peninsula, the Iberocelts.
Druids - all I know about them is it takes 20 years to train up to become one. But they learned all their stuff by ear. No reading or writing was involved - deliberately - they knew about writing, but they had to keep their stuff secret - otherwise why bother having druids - so they memorised all of it. But eventually some of them spilt the beans once they became christianised and literate. And it's all there in the ancient Welsh sagas. The kernel of the Druidic faith. Next Eisteddfodd you guys go to why don't you come back here and translate some of the epic poetry for us, please. I for one would be interested in hearing what our forebears thought.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were "composed" about 725-750BC as part of a thriving oral tradition (rather like that of the Druids), probably as a bringing together of a number of even earlier epics, and were first written down in their present from about 600BC. Homeric Greek is readable by modern Greeks (the difference between the old and the modern versions of the language probably being on a par with Shakespeare v modern English), although modern pronunciation is vastly different.
I don't know whether there's any evidence that proto-Welsh of 2000+ years ago bears a similar resemblance to modern Welsh - there's no written form of the language going back that far, as far as I know. Any comments on this from any Welsh language experts in our midst, please?
Danny's distracting himself from a distressing situation, Chris. Not to worry. Interesting stuff, Dan. WendyAnn, you're welcome, but really you should be thanking Dafydd directly and Trevor indirectly! (Bit of a private joke there, sorry.) I think it's great you'll be able to list tunes there! I'd love for Dafydd's site to be just as successful as TheSession is.
So much about death...there's a load of Welsh songs with people dying here there and everywhere....sometimes even before the last verse...re. druids...there's an interesting academic...local to Caernarfon..Nerys Jones...Harvard graduate...talking on Radio 4 a few weeks ago about the area....I was trying to clean the house at the time...you know, cleanliness is next to godliness and all that..anyway I digress even without magic mushrooms...apparently the druids...according to Nerys..who is extremely plausible on ancient Irish history by the way..apparently the druids were the equivalent of the MI6 or MI5 of the period...the Victorians went a bit potty on the druids and interpreted the history of them in an overly mystical way ...I think...Anyway, that's my last note on the subject...I'm off to Kilfenora..squeeze as much in before I die...aren't we all like leaves? Cremated, buried...a friend of mine wanted to be buried at sea..he was cremated and he asked another friend to scatter his ashes there but he got sea sick so stood on the shore and threw them into the wind and got them back in his mouth....which category does that fall into? Do you get banned for digressing to this extent or do you get another chance? Wendy
S'mae Pawb -
Chris Jones ydw i. Dwi'n bwy yn Chicago a dwi'n dysgy Cymraeg! Dwi'n yn nifer o cylch caneuon gwerin (folk song circles). Beth bennag, I am more into songs than tunes, but I was hoping to find someone in this group interested in sharing songs. Not too many songsters on Dafydd's site either, but he is doing a great job. Let me know if you are interested in Welsh songs. Also, the Welsh Caneuon Gwerin website has been revised, and is worth looking at - I just can't seem to find it on Google this am. I do like Irish music too, and am going to the Irishfest in Chicago this pm - Makem Brother a eraill.
Hwyl fawr, Chris, Wheaton, IL
I've had a stab at playing in Wales in pub "sessions" but my experience is that they don't have "sessions" in the sense that people all join in and contribute to a set of tunes. Mostly they're "circle of death" things where everyone gets a turn. That's at least an opportunity to listen and hear some good / interesting stuff - however, I'm often the only one playing Welsh tunes at these things - tunes like Cader Idris and Hen Fercheten - most people just sing songs (in English) which have little to do with folk tradition.
I've never understood why there's not more Welsh music played as a lot of the tunes are great, and given the Welsh association with the harp, I've not met another harpist at any of these things. There is (apparently) going to be a session in one of the tents at the Eistedfodd this year - which is great as the normal events there are based on very formal sets of rules and seem to be far removed from folk music as we know it. Sort of weird that their folk music culture seems to be a bit sidelined in their national festival!! - or at least, it's presented in a very formal way.
I'd be interested if anyone agrees or not with my (limited) reading of what goes on in Wales.
There used to be a lot of Noson Lawen's when I was growing up. The singing was Canu Penillion and poetry called englynion and a lot of humourous stories...very funny gentle humour. There was a strong work ethic..the quarries and mines were different to the agricultural rhythm of Irish life..very harsh, slave labour really, strict working hours, high death rate. I think that made a difference..music literally became a communal voice through the choirs and the bands..people working in the same mines and quarries. I've noticed that people from the Llyn peninsula more sea going, agricultural people seem more like Irish people..I've come across some great informal singing and playing there. There used to be a lot of harmonious singing amongst the fishermen that I grew up with. It went with the decline of the fishing industry. I think the eisteddfod fitted in with the ethos of self improvement and education that came with the industrial revolution. Lot of social control by quarry owners...no time/permission to enjoy yourself. Ireland didn't have that work ethic thing to the same extent...no mines, mills or quarries in the same way, more relaxed seasonal rhythms of agriculture. More modern now easier times and perhaps we're benefiting from that more relaxed Irish way of life. Just my thoughts. I come from a quarrying family. Perhaps I'm completely wrong.Wendy W
Hi..im not really sure what to write but im Welsh,I moved to Melbourne Australia 2 years ago from South Wales,Tredegar..I just wanted to say hi!and also,i really want to learn how to speak Welsh as i only know a few words..Anyone help?
Taryn x x
If I'm not mistaken, there may be a discussion on speaking Welsh. If not, 'C' can help you out w/ some pronunciation in some of the Wesh tunes on the session! I have not found them all I don't think, but I am glad to see there are some Welsh contributions for I have Welsh heritage as well. Can anyone give me a hand with a Welsh tune list? Thanks a lot.
Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Any Welsh members living in Wales in this group? Into Welsh tunes? Wendy Ann (Gwynedd)
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by wendyann
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Yes, Dafydd Monks started up a site that he hopes will be the thesession.org of Welsh music. I wonder how they're getting along? http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
I don't live in Wales,but I've posted a lot of tunes on Dafydd's site.
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
I think Conway is from Wales.
Try searching for "Wales" in the member's directory.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Max Becher
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Here ya go.
http://www.thesession.org/members/index.php?name=wales
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Max Becher
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Diolch o galon am hyn...(thank you from the heart for this...!) Wendy
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by wendyann
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
I can understand why the Welsh always want to always be so difficult - sorry, dee-ffee-coolt. Or is it DDhuh-vvhuh-caaHlltt? And I love you guys for it....ooops...am I allowed to gate crash a welsh thread? Och well, now that I'm here, ye's might as well get yased to idea.
I'm not sure of the purpose of this thread, but if you did a search, ye'll find enough welsh people, many great contributors to this site, lurking here or nearby.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by xyz
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Hi Wendy
I'm one of them (half Welsh but not that you'd really notice!)- been living in Ceredigion for 4 years. Don't think much of Lord of the Flies Welsh accent but he sounds friendly! : ) !! (dim prob!)I love WTM and have been learning tunes on flute - probably not a good thing to say here but..... I prefer it to ITM although it comes a pretty close 2nd!! I'm also registered on the Welsh trad site Zina mentioned. There's not so much traffic on discussions but quite a lot of tunes and it's definately worth a visit.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by cariad
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Max, I'm sorely disappointed not to see my name in your list ("weep")
) if you search for "Welsh" in the members list 
Not to worry, mere residency or holidays in Wales is not of itself sufficient to classify someone as Welsh. I think there's a better result (i.e. it includes me
http://www.thesession.org/members/index.php?name=Welsh
Of course, this won't catch those members who don't mention their nationality in their bio, but short of Jeremy requiring every member to state their nationality as a condition of membership we're not going to get much closer
Trevor
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
my dear man pete is welsh, ancestry. Family Jones, nova scotia miners...
I was bewitched near Harlach once,, in a village called lllllwlllyyyynnnnn, or LlwwEEllynn--mdllyn. or something like that. do you know it?
do you play patagonian music there? I am searching for clues for the 20 Questions game that I hope happens...
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by vboyd100
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Me!
Born in Wales of Welsh descent.
I keep looking for sessions in Gwynedd, but haven't found any. Can you help?
Danny - Welcome to Taffy's Session, nice to have you on crash in. Do you want to sit near the fire, or shall we go home?
Osblob - "Don't think much of Lord of the Flies Welsh accent but he sounds friendly! : ) !! (dim prob!)" - Fantastic. The bi-lingual ambiguity of the "(dim prob)" is wonderful - but is it intentional?
Dave
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
The last town (near Philadelphia) I lived in was Bryn Mawr. Apparantly the Welsh settled there years ago. Now I live 2 down or so east of that--in Ardmore. I gues that's Irish for "high hill", right?
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Andee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
S'mae Wendy.
I'm not Welsh but spent many childhood holidays in Cricieth and discovered the best Ice cream in the world made by Cadwalader.
Ah the long walk to Black Rock Sands and then the fishing with orange line wooden frame and limpet bate.
Yes I know the meaning hiraeth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3561173.stm
PP
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Pied Piper
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
"..., mere residency or holidays in Wales is not of itself sufficient to classify someone as Welch."
First, I understand the point. However, although I am a multi-generation American the Dutch descendents where I live (near Holland, Michigan) consider me to be Welch, although my mother is of Dutch descent. To my Irish (descent) friends, I am an Englishman!
Zina, thanks for the link to the Welsh music site. Very interesting.
Bruce Evans
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by tocotodo
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Andee, Ardmore or Ard mòr = LIT. big height
joe
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by Joe Quinn
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Things are going well - it's been very busy in traffic, and a lot of people have contacted me offering their thanks for putting it online - people have found the music and are playing it - but no new tunes in a while, and the whole site is going to go fully automatic later this summer.
Dafydd.
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by Dafydd Monks
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Yay, Dafydd! Glad to hear it. *grin* Be sure to pick a color for your website (and thus the t-shirts) that looks better on more people. *smirk*
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Dave - yes the bi-lingual ambiguity is intentional - its 'normal speak' round here - English words crop up in welsh usage - although I must admit I'm quite slow learning welsh as it is a very hard language to learn - but I keep at it because I want to understand the songs because the songs often have the rhythm of the music due to that wonderful other Welsh skill of the Bards and the strange meters in the poetry!
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by cariad
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Bribanjo I've never seen a Welsh man in a kilt - try Scotland!
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by cariad
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Joe, thanks for the correction on "Ardmore" the funny thing is, Ardmore, if it is up on a hill of some sort, it's a very small one, hardly detectable at all. Maybe the founder of this town was from Ardmore in Ireland, and just named it after his home town.
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by Andee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Thank you for all these replies...Welsh is my first language, though had many years abroad....there's a chapel in Caernarfon Gwynedd commemorating the people who moved to Patagonia. I've logged on to your site Dafydd..Thank you Zina for directing me to it. I'll have to try and figure out how to submit tunes...I have loads and loads of Welsh tunes...some old books going back years..some of them I really like. Cadwaladr ice cream is good...I'm trying to think where the town you mean near Harlech is...not far from me either...Bryn Mawr means big hill. Some Welsh tunes are also Irish..evolved from tunes played at sea..or even Jamaican I read somewhere...harking back to the mercantile era...There are sessions in Gwynedd...Welsh and Irish in Bangor on Friday nights and on one Monday once a month but I can never remember which. I'll try and find out...in the Newborough in Bontnewydd near Caernarfon, on a Thursday night...attendance varies..also started by Cass Meurig and Idris..the Vaynol in Nant Peris..once a month I think day under review. I'd love to hear some Patagonian tunes...must be some someone who knows a few...Quite a lot of people here go on trips to the 'Wladfa'.. Diolch i chi eto...Thank you again...Wendy
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by wendyann
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Along with Lithuanian, isn't Welsh the oldest *surviving* Indo-European language?
I highlighted surviving, meaning more or less remaining in the form that people spoke maybe 2-3000 years ago. English deffo doesn't fall into that category, neither do Scots or Irish Gaelic - they've been continuously evolving, as is evident by the fact that they are now regarded as separate tongues, after possibly 1500 years separation. Strangely enough, even up till the 18th century, the lowland Scots reffered to their highland countrymen (and women) as the fighting highland Irish.
Anyway, back to the Welsh. Years ago I got half-way through (and regret not finishing it, but it was written in such dramatic overdone victorian prose, that it was so easily put-down-able) this wierd victorian book about how the ritual of Death cults came from Africa some several thousand years ago. Yer man reckoned that this idea of how you deal with your dead relatives was the basis of civilisation. The notion of preserving them went east to Egypt - hence mummies. Remember, 7-8000 years ago, desertification of the area we now think of as the Sahara had only just started, so people could bouldly go etc.
Jesus Christ was burnt after his death. This is true. There was this Welshman who christened his (I think) stillborn son Jesus Christ. Yer man was a religious fanatic, and he cremated his stillborn waif. So started the cult of cremation. Prior to that the dead were always buried. And up until the mid 19 century in churchyards. Then they got full up and then cemetries started to appear in the suburbs.
I digress. The druids had some death cult. It had to do with the preservation of bodies. The druids of course were the high priests of the ancient Celts. Nowadays they get a bad press. Human sacrifice and all that. But at least they were'nt as bad as the Incas or Aztecs - especially the aztecs.And that's another story - remind me to tell you that one sometime. But they (Druids) were in fact merely exponents of a branch of a more ancient indo-european pantheistic religion.
(another small hijack - religion - from the Latin re-ligare = to bind again, ie to make people bound together as one again.
Sectarian - from sectare, to cut, divide, etc, as in dissect, section, segment, saw.
So: sectarian + religion? ---- Geezabrek!)
You might of course, wish to explore who were there in Europe before the Indo-European blow-ins. There's no one linguistic theory uniting them dudes. Of the 3 big remaining literate pre-indo-european groups, those being, obviously,no 1, Basques, but also Etruscans and then the Minoans (on Crete). But these guys had actual civilisations, ie, cities and governments, and civic authority,etc, but yet they didn't know how to melt metal into a shape they required. Also, these guys were even wierder. heard of trepanation? Cut out holes in your skull - common practice. Logical. Lets out demons.
***Sowwwiftly*** getting back on topic....
Mebbe 7000 years ago - peanuts, lets face it, we started to respect our dead, by embalming them. THis idea was reputed to have travelled up from Morocco, been taken up by the Iberocelts...then ended up in Ireland. One theory suggests that because *Irish* (and therefore by default, Scottish Gaelic, rather the whole Gaelic language group, as opposed to Brythonnic) is so different from other celtic tongues that it has different origins..ie by way of the Iberian peninsula, the Iberocelts.
Druids - all I know about them is it takes 20 years to train up to become one. But they learned all their stuff by ear. No reading or writing was involved - deliberately - they knew about writing, but they had to keep their stuff secret - otherwise why bother having druids - so they memorised all of it. But eventually some of them spilt the beans once they became christianised and literate. And it's all there in the ancient Welsh sagas. The kernel of the Druidic faith. Next Eisteddfodd you guys go to why don't you come back here and translate some of the epic poetry for us, please. I for one would be interested in hearing what our forebears thought.
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by xyz
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Have you been on the magic mushrooms again, Danny?
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by milesnagopaleen
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were "composed" about 725-750BC as part of a thriving oral tradition (rather like that of the Druids), probably as a bringing together of a number of even earlier epics, and were first written down in their present from about 600BC. Homeric Greek is readable by modern Greeks (the difference between the old and the modern versions of the language probably being on a par with Shakespeare v modern English), although modern pronunciation is vastly different.
I don't know whether there's any evidence that proto-Welsh of 2000+ years ago bears a similar resemblance to modern Welsh - there's no written form of the language going back that far, as far as I know. Any comments on this from any Welsh language experts in our midst, please?
Trevor
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Danny's distracting himself from a distressing situation, Chris. Not to worry. Interesting stuff, Dan. WendyAnn, you're welcome, but really you should be thanking Dafydd directly and Trevor indirectly! (Bit of a private joke there, sorry.) I think it's great you'll be able to list tunes there! I'd love for Dafydd's site to be just as successful as TheSession is.
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Danny, won't you tell us the story about how the ancient celts used to go about their high chief/king coronation ceremonies?
You know.. the naughty one about about the white mare!
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Q
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Family site, Matty! It's a family site! *smirk*
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Family, huh? I thought we were talking about the ancient celts, not the *Egyptians*!
okay okay okay shutting right up already
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Q
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
The man who cremated his son in was Dr. William Price.He was charged with illegally disposing of a body,defended himself,and won the case.
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members and digressions?
So much about death...there's a load of Welsh songs with people dying here there and everywhere....sometimes even before the last verse...re. druids...there's an interesting academic...local to Caernarfon..Nerys Jones...Harvard graduate...talking on Radio 4 a few weeks ago about the area....I was trying to clean the house at the time...you know, cleanliness is next to godliness and all that..anyway I digress even without magic mushrooms...apparently the druids...according to Nerys..who is extremely plausible on ancient Irish history by the way..apparently the druids were the equivalent of the MI6 or MI5 of the period...the Victorians went a bit potty on the druids and interpreted the history of them in an overly mystical way ...I think...Anyway, that's my last note on the subject...I'm off to Kilfenora..squeeze as much in before I die...aren't we all like leaves? Cremated, buried...a friend of mine wanted to be buried at sea..he was cremated and he asked another friend to scatter his ashes there but he got sea sick so stood on the shore and threw them into the wind and got them back in his mouth....which category does that fall into? Do you get banned for digressing to this extent or do you get another chance? Wendy
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by wendyann
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
You tend to get a short note from Jeremy if you cross his line. Once you've gotten one, you tend to want to avoid getting them again.
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Zina, ah, memories
- your antepenultimate post.
Trevor
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Let's see...you must mean this one, Trev? http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/1211 Or am I getting your meaning wrong?
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Zina, I think we're on the same wavelength
Trevor
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
My family is from the Mumbles area of South Wales. I love Wales but know no Welsh tunes... Wendy, I enjoyed your digression.
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Lizzy
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
S'mae Pawb -
Chris Jones ydw i. Dwi'n bwy yn Chicago a dwi'n dysgy Cymraeg! Dwi'n yn nifer o cylch caneuon gwerin (folk song circles). Beth bennag, I am more into songs than tunes, but I was hoping to find someone in this group interested in sharing songs. Not too many songsters on Dafydd's site either, but he is doing a great job. Let me know if you are interested in Welsh songs. Also, the Welsh Caneuon Gwerin website has been revised, and is worth looking at - I just can't seem to find it on Google this am. I do like Irish music too, and am going to the Irishfest in Chicago this pm - Makem Brother a eraill.
Hwyl fawr, Chris, Wheaton, IL
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by chjajones
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
I've had a stab at playing in Wales in pub "sessions" but my experience is that they don't have "sessions" in the sense that people all join in and contribute to a set of tunes. Mostly they're "circle of death" things where everyone gets a turn. That's at least an opportunity to listen and hear some good / interesting stuff - however, I'm often the only one playing Welsh tunes at these things - tunes like Cader Idris and Hen Fercheten - most people just sing songs (in English) which have little to do with folk tradition.
I've never understood why there's not more Welsh music played as a lot of the tunes are great, and given the Welsh association with the harp, I've not met another harpist at any of these things. There is (apparently) going to be a session in one of the tents at the Eistedfodd this year - which is great as the normal events there are based on very formal sets of rules and seem to be far removed from folk music as we know it. Sort of weird that their folk music culture seems to be a bit sidelined in their national festival!! - or at least, it's presented in a very formal way.
I'd be interested if anyone agrees or not with my (limited) reading of what goes on in Wales.
# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Mark Harmer
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
There used to be a lot of Noson Lawen's when I was growing up. The singing was Canu Penillion and poetry called englynion and a lot of humourous stories...very funny gentle humour. There was a strong work ethic..the quarries and mines were different to the agricultural rhythm of Irish life..very harsh, slave labour really, strict working hours, high death rate. I think that made a difference..music literally became a communal voice through the choirs and the bands..people working in the same mines and quarries. I've noticed that people from the Llyn peninsula more sea going, agricultural people seem more like Irish people..I've come across some great informal singing and playing there. There used to be a lot of harmonious singing amongst the fishermen that I grew up with. It went with the decline of the fishing industry. I think the eisteddfod fitted in with the ethos of self improvement and education that came with the industrial revolution. Lot of social control by quarry owners...no time/permission to enjoy yourself. Ireland didn't have that work ethic thing to the same extent...no mines, mills or quarries in the same way, more relaxed seasonal rhythms of agriculture. More modern now easier times and perhaps we're benefiting from that more relaxed Irish way of life. Just my thoughts. I come from a quarrying family. Perhaps I'm completely wrong.Wendy W
# Posted on July 18th 2004 by wendyann
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Hi Wendy
That's a really interesting take on the Eistedfodd which I hadn't considered...
Mark
# Posted on July 25th 2004 by Mark Harmer
A welsh lass needs help!!
Hi..im not really sure what to write but im Welsh,I moved to Melbourne Australia 2 years ago from South Wales,Tredegar..I just wanted to say hi!and also,i really want to learn how to speak Welsh as i only know a few words..Anyone help?
Taryn x x
# Posted on April 19th 2006 by xThAtS-HoTx
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
If I'm not mistaken, there may be a discussion on speaking Welsh. If not, 'C' can help you out w/ some pronunciation in some of the Wesh tunes on the session! I have not found them all I don't think, but I am glad to see there are some Welsh contributions for I have Welsh heritage as well. Can anyone give me a hand with a Welsh tune list? Thanks a lot.
Jeff
# Posted on January 18th 2007 by Jeffery
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
If you're still looking to make a welsh tune list, contact me and I'll give you the name of a few good ones.
Peter
# Posted on September 3rd 2007 by concertina100
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Does anyone know what has happened to the Welsh Traditional Music website?
http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com
It seems to be largely dead with little activity for about the last 6 months. Anyone know anything about it?
D
# Posted on April 21st 2008 by Welshman
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Last time I looked, about 3 months ago, I responded to the invitation to send an email but never had any reply.
# Posted on April 21st 2008 by wolfbird
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
Perhaps they use invisible ink.
# Posted on April 22nd 2008 by nicholas
Re: Welsh tunes/Welsh members?
here's a welsh air from a recent reprint from Llanerch Press (look it up).
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/8520
# Posted on May 12th 2008 by fynnjamin