If any blues player confesses to playing ‘the harp’ then you know this refers to the harmonica, so players already have a link to the traditional instrument of Wales! It survived the Welsh Methodist movement in the 19th century. There was a need for some light relief from the monotony and continual pressure of industrial work, drunkenness had become a significant social problem. Methodism bore down heavily on the music of the common people, associated with the taverns which developed with the growth of the industrial towns, and folk music and the instruments that had been associated with it were ostracised. Out went the dancing fiddle, the rude and raucous pipes were pretty rare by then, but the harp survived.
WELSH TRADITIONAL MUSIC Meurig Williams and Aidan Sheehan
Music has been part of the fabric of Wales since the Middle Ages. The laws of Hywel Dda from the tenth century state that the King should employ a Pencerdd (head of music) and provide him with a harp, a crwth (ancestor of the fiddle) and pipes to appropriately skilled players. No written notation has been found for this music, but the National Library of Wales holds the manuscripts of Robert ap Huw (1580-1665) which took some time to decipher and is the oldest collection of harp music in the world. You can find our more about Welsh traditional music, including the harp, crwth and pipes on the bilingual website of the Welsh Traditional Instruments Society, www.clera.org
Feb-Mar 2021 • Harmonica.co.uk
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