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The Telyn Deires, or triple harp, is regarded as Wales’s national instru- ment. It was brought to Britain from continental Europe about 1630 and became popular with harpists in London. Many of these harpists were Welsh, and so this harp which has three rows of strings came to Wales where it became popular, particularly among the Gypsy community.
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Thankfully, much of the old harp repertoire has survived due to notable musicians of the 19th Century who pub- lished collections. One of the most distin- guished exponents of the tradition in the 20th Century was Nansi Richards, who formed a bridge between the 19th Centu- ry golden age of the triple harp and mod- ern times. There is nobody alive today who has done more for this instrument’s popu- larity than Robin Huw Bowen. We asked him to tell us more:
“The ‘shimmering’ voice of the triple
harp’s three rows of strings is truly as time- less and unique as the Welsh language itself. Its style of playing, a common reper- toire, and the interpretation of its music were all forged together by our native cre- ativity into something undeniably and iconically Welsh. I’ve chosen a track which I think shows off the harp’s capability and the Welsh tradition to great effect, Pwt Ar Y Bys – Fingering Vamp from my album Rhes Ganol – Yn y Gwaed (In The Blood).”
Track 3: Pwt Ar Y Bys – Fingering Vamp (performed by Robin Huw Bowen, from the album Rhes Ganol – Yn Y Gwaed. Pub- lished on the Tant label.)
Wales’s folk songs range from maytime and plygain carols to love songs, work songs to ballads. Singer Arfon Gwilym was brought up in the tradition and we asked him to tell us more about plygain songs:
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“The Welsh plygain tradition is one of the oldest unbroken folk traditions of the British Isles. It has survived mainly in Mont- gomeryshire and some surrounding areas. It takes place in churches and chapels in a six week period around Christmas and the new year, where, after a short service, the ‘plygain’ is declared open and anyone in the audience can then take part, as indi- viduals or as small parties, the most com- mon party being three people, singing in close harmony. The singing is always unac- companied and in the past was dominated by men who sang in a simple folk style that was unique.”
Track 4: Triawd Fronheulog – Ar Gyfer Heddiw’r Bore (from the album Caneuon Plygain a Llofft-Stabal / Close Harmony Traditional Carol Singing. Published on the Sain label.)
Thanks to the Eisteddfod and other cul- tural movements, Welsh folk songs and ballads are still widely performed in their traditional forms. However, new gen- erations of musicians are revisiting them and finding ways to perform these songs in more contemporary styles, ensuring that they remain relevant to the here and now. In recent years, folk singer Siân James has been at the forefront of this movement:
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“A nation’s ballads, the world over, are her stories set to music. Ballad writing in Wales was at its most prolific during the 18th and 19th Centuries and their survival is partly thanks to the production of ballad sheets sold in fairs for a penny each. A bal- lad which caught my imagination from a very young age was the very beautiful Yr Eneth Gadd Ei Gwrthod (The Rejected
Maiden) – a 19th Century ballad from the Cynwyd area near Bala – which tells the story of a young girl who, finding herself pregnant out of wedlock, is thrown out of her family home by her father, ostracised by her community and left destitute. It ends with the girl drowning herself. She is found with a water-sodden note in her hand, ask- ing to be buried without a headstone, so her existence would be forgotten.”
“I have always felt a deep affinity with it. The words floored me right from the start and gave me an invaluable lesson into the injustices faced by women across the ages. For me the melody is one of our most beautiful, its lovely, lilting phrasing belying the tragic subject matter of the words.”
Track 5: Yr Eneth Gadd Ei Gwrthod (arranged and performed by Siân James, from her album Distaw. Published on the Sain label.)
Due to the work of enlightened individ- uals such as Lady Llanover in the 18th Century, a good many of Wales’s tradi- tional dance reels have survived. Stephen Rees is one of Wales’s leading folk musi- cians and musicologists so we asked him to tell us more:
· “I’ve chosen a recording of Pibddawns
Y Sipsi performed by Nansi Richards, the original, the one – the only – ‘Queen of the Welsh Harp’. It conveys the hwyl or spirit of our traditional dance music. It combines the repetition of a well-known harmonic progression with the principle of variation so beloved of Welsh harpers since the Mid- dle Ages. Classical virtuosi may cavil at minor technical blemishes here and there. But no matter – this is a gem.”
Track 6: Pibddawns Y Sipsi (performed by Nansi Richards from the album Bren- hines Y Delyn / Queen Of The Welsh Harp. Published on the Sain label.)
During the Industrial Revolution, hun- dreds of thousands of migrant workers from across the world flocked to Wales’s coalfields, slate quarries and docks. The impact upon what had been small, Welsh- speaking communities was immense. In terms of folk music, this period ignited a tradition of mixed language songs known as ‘Macaronic’. These blend Welsh and English and come mainly from the indus- trial areas of southeast Wales. Singer and BBC6 radio presenter Cerys Matthews is a big fan, so we asked her to select a track:
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“Cân Merthyr is one of my favorite Macaronic songs. It was initially discovered in oral tradition but it also exists in a hand- written record dated 1909 in the archives of the National Library of Wales, and long
Dafydd Iwan Cerys Matthews
remained unpublished. Its words are said to have been sold on the pamphlet of a ballad-singer at Merthyr Tydfil around the mid-19th Century. Like many of these Mac- aronic songs, it has a love theme, with a twist of irony and a shovelful of dark humour thrown in!
Track 7: Cân Merthyr (arranged and performed by Cerys Matthews, from her album Tir on the Rainbow City label.)
The 1960s and ’70s saw a surge in Welsh language activism. While the rest of the Western world was engaged in the hippy movement and the ‘summer of love’, Wales was responding by re-engag- ing in its pre-Reformation cultural her- itage – our folk music and traditions, fuelled in part by a surge in the popularity of Celtic music. We asked Dafydd Roberts one of the founding members of Ar Log, Wales’s first international folk band to tell us a little more:
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“We formed Ar Log in 1976, with the dream of being able to earn a living solely by playing traditional Welsh music. It took a while to get going, but after encourage- ment from John Sheahan of the Dubliners, by the early ’80s Ar Log were travelling Europe and North and South America con- sistently for around nine months of the year. We had a wealth of traditional Welsh folk music at our disposal, from haunting love songs and harp airs, to melodic dance tunes, and rousing sea shanties. I’ve cho- sen my favourite medley of traditional folk songs from Ar Log’s repertoire, Twll Yn Y To / Cymro O Ble / Pedwar Post.”
Track 8: Twll Yn Y To / Cymro O Ble /
Pedwar Post (arranged and performed by Ar Log, from their album Ar Log – VI. Pub- lished on the Sain label.)
No mention of the folk revival in Wales would be complete without a word from Dafydd Iwan. A singer-composer and political activist, he was at the fore- front of the direct action campaigns for official status for the Welsh language dur- ing the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s as part of his activism with Cymdeithas Yr Iaith, the Welsh Language Movement. “Songs have been a natural medium for expressing strong emotions and political protest for centuries, and here in Wales there is a long tradition of ballads with a strong social and political theme. The political themes have changed over the years, and the can-
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