MUSICAL LANDSCAPES

Traditional music is often seen as timeless, tales as old as time that take you into the countryside, to a good Welsh pub, or an ancient Welsh court room. However, music is rarely inspired solely by the actual surroundings, but by the communities and politics that occupy those hills and valleys. Through this introduction to Welsh music I would like to show the revolutionary landscapes that formed Welsh traditional music and highlighting why nationalism and nostalgia, like these images above, can sometimes be for golden past rather than the actual unknowable one.

Welsh people start to be mentioned, under this name, at around the 11th century and are descended from Brittonic speaking tribes, who are themselves derived from the famous Celts. The Celtic musics have not been in constant mass appeal, as with any popular culture (Cohen; 2006), meaning that the history can be documented as a history of revivals. Ironically the first instance of written Welsh music is as part of a revival. In antiquity Welsh traditional music was a bardic tradition, with the bardic Eisteddfod music, literature and dance competitions starting in the 12th century (Blyn-Ladrew; 1998). However, most of this music is lost due to the demise of the wealth of the Welsh lords, and therefore the oral bardic tradition they supported. Robert ap Huw’s (1580 – 1665) manuscript of tunes, that unfortunately cannot be read today (Kinney; 2005, 8), was written to preserve these tunes. Although the music is lost, this document and myths from the old tradition provides a landscape for the next ones, for example, the revived existence of the Eisteddfod and appointment of non-professional bards for their support of the Welsh arts. This shows that part of the appeal of traditional music is the heritage attached to it, a nationalistic appeal, rather than the music itself.

The next revolution was spearheaded by the Wood family, particularly the proud Romani John Roberts (1816-1894) who “virtually monopolized the revival of traditional Welsh music at the time when the puritanical [Methodist Christian] atmosphere in Wales had condemned secular entertainment as sinful and when many folk traditions were discontinued” (Blyn-Ladrew, 1998; 227). In this case Welsh music was saved by a cultural outsider. This interrelation shows that just as nationalism cannot exist without another nation, nor did Welsh music’s fate simply rest in the Welsh’s hands. It should also be noted that during these times, some songs had made their way into the church hymn book; this is when Wales became known as the land of song, due to this communal church singing – another cultural aspect given by intersection with a distant Arabian faith.

A new obsession for collecting folk music developed in the Victorian times. An early example of collected Welsh songs are the settings of traditional songs in the Western Classical Tradition; there are even Beethoven adapted Welsh airs ordered by a Scotsman (Cooper; 1996; 5-22) showing the fluidity of traditions in such close proximity. The links with Western Classical musical tradition are also in Welsh language treatises talking about folk music with cantus firmus and consonant - dissonant explanations (Cooper and Rees; 1996). Welsh music’s repertoire is first original, then from the Celtic kingdoms and then from the American Celtic diaspora. This adaption of neighbouring tunes is also aided by the process of communal re-creation (Nettl; 1956; 5), when the original has been altered so many times by so many people it is difficult to know the original. This tune swapping and especially baroque arrangements of tunes allowed collectors to revive older forgotten tunes or find complete versions of tunes from older manuscripts. Exchange, both between traditional musics and classical, shows the culture as a living and changing if slightly fussy entity with a debt to the next-door culture for preserving it and sometimes saving it in times of need.

The two British- American folk revivals that took place around the 20th century (one at the beginning and one-half way through) (Cohen; 2006) strongly rely on collections which started in the 18th century and continue until today. Collections have a strong emphasis on the past (Cohen; 2006) and are not always an honest reflection (Unknown; 1911). Examples of this are, the apparent want to ‘save the tradition’ and implicit Marxism (Porter; 1991) epitomised in prolific collector Sharp’s works (Sharp; 1907) as well as the naivety of a novice in others (Yates; 2006). These points certainly do not cover all people, either now or at the time, however much of the music from the oral traditions was not handed down, and the content was saved by archiving (Cohen; 2006). Therefore, it is important to note the motivations of those who collected music (Cooley and Barz; 1997) as this has influenced the remaining music which is the foundation of the traditional scenes in Great Britain and much of Europe today.

The left-wing politically charged folk revival of the 1960s was where the cultural phenomenon (Turino; 1994) of pub sessions started to be the new transmission landscape (Reiss; 2003). This revival coincides and intertwines with the Welsh language revival, for which music is a means of promotion (Wallis and Malm; 1983). This connection works both ways with language also giving authority to the ‘Welshness’ of songs (Wallis and Malm; 1983, Hill; 2007). The importance of language and the core Welshness of traditional music as a national identity, not just a set of notes, can be seen by the pure percentage of Welsh speakers. At the sessions I have attended approximately 80% speak Welsh, even if they are not native speakers, however, if you were to take the general population of Cardiff this number is much closer to 25%. I am not claiming that all Welshness is a scam, however this mixed history does bring gatekeeping and national truths into question. It is hard to ignore Turino’s “bid for sane simplicity” folk musician cultural cohort, and the use of traditional music in nationalistic events; such as political rallies, and the last night of the proms. I would argue that these often-exclusionary events draw on and exploit a varied, geographically ambiguous and, in cases, multicultural music to evoke an image of pure untampered Welshness. Instead, they should celebrate interactions with other cultures that ultimately have ensured the survival of, and lent tunes to, Welsh music. “It is perhaps too simple to assume that the effect of greater media interpenetration will always be to dilute communal and national solidarities” (Llewellyn, 2000; 326). I think this quote highlights the insecurities that lead to increasing gatekeeping and arguments of cultural purity in traditions that rely on communication with others to survive.

Generally, the history of the Welsh tradition strikes me as being “in-sync out-of-phase” (Turino, 1994), whilst usually this describes at least two people playing one tune with different variations. Welsh history is an example of people trying to play the same tunes, but the opinions and cultural factors of each age provide a variation of the same original tradition, even if the music is not the same. This effect could also be seen as the “periodic energizing and vivification of culture” (Jabbour; 2014; 131). Each time the culture is revitalised it simply gains aspects of the time it is in. Instead of just concentrating on the rolling hills, we should notice the pubs, Romani caravans, castle ruins, red left-wing labour flags, instruments and notes from Western Classical traditions and remember that Wales can still incorporate and experiment and be just the next version of Welsh.

References

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