What's your latest Welsh tune?

[Jack Roberts]

Could someone recommend one or two for me?

(I just came back from a visit to Cornwall. Next trip to the UK I'll visit Wales.)

[catmandu2]

When i hit upon this repertoire (the ap Huw manuscript) about 6-7 years ago, it took me over - a little like Bach did me decades prior. I'm still studying it, as my interest has yet to wane.

http://resources.trac.wales/traditions/400-years-of-the-robert-ap-huw-manuscript/

[harper]

Jack, here is a link to an earlier thread. There are three tunes here: Mândelyn, Morvan Rhuddlan, and Red Piper's Melody. The last 2 include pdfs of my trio arrangements. Martin Jonas recorded them.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?95062-Mândelyn

Evelyn

[CelticDude]

I've become taken by the group Calan, and got their music book, as well as all of their CDs. Some really fun tunes, traditional and original, that I'm still working through. A few tunes with flats, which throws me a bit, but I'm sure they build character...

[kypfer]

John Tose' tunebook http://www.mochpryderi.com/Resources/Tose%20200%20Tunes.pdf is a useful resource for Welsh tunes. The music is designed to be played on the pibgorn (hornpipe) so the tunes have a maximum range of nine notes (C to d), mostly relatively easy in the first position ;)

Keith Lewis published another Pibgorn Tunebook, though I've not seen it available recently.

There is also "Welsh Folk Tunes for Ocarina" arranged by Suzanne Rose, with the music in standard notation, with guitar chords and ocarina tab (which one can effectively ignore, but might give an opportunity for duetting)

Enjoy ... I do :)

[ukrobbiej]

This Welsh tune is a regular part of my bands repertoire. The arrangements is my own:


https://youtu.be/rJc-UGfo9rk

[Mandolinespieler]

I have the "Welsh Fiddle Tunes" by Sian Phillips mentioned around here. It has a nice collection of relatively simple tunes that can be played on mando. I for one would love to see more Welsh music played.

[Martin Jonas]

Jack, here is a link to an earlier thread. There are three tunes here: Mândelyn, Morvan Rhuddlan, and Red Piper's Melody. The last 2 include pdfs of my trio arrangements. Martin Jonas recorded them.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?95062-Mândelyn

Evelyn

Evelyn's mandolin arrangements of Welsh tunes are delightful, and I am pleased to have recorded a few of them. Her two ebooks "Evelyn's Big Book For Mandolins For The Year 2015" and "For the Year 2017" (both available from Amazon) have several of them.

I am not Welsh, but I live in Wales and therefore feel that I should engage with the traditional tunes from around here -- I've recorded a few over the year, some in Evelyn's arrangement and some from other sources:

Calon Lân (https://youtu.be/i4ImeiLpljc)
Farewell Marian (Ffarwel I'r Marian) (https://youtu.be/yS-A8QKmacc)
Y Bardd (The Bard) (https://youtu.be/z6QoM6Kt6ek)
Morfa Rhuddlan (Rhuddlan Marsh) (https://youtu.be/E8Rmx4SO6PA)
The Red Piper's Melody/Digan y pibydd coch (https://youtu.be/K4LwyoBFGRU)
Pant Corlan yr Wyn (The Lambs Fold Vale) (https://youtu.be/ldqE-Pm0OIA)
The Ash Grove (Llwyn Onn) (https://youtu.be/hWItkw1-fb0)

Martin

[Mandolinespieler]

This has inspired me to go off of the deep end and get a pibgorn...

[kypfer]

This has inspired me to go off of the deep end and get a pibgorn...

If you haven't found it already ... http://www.pibgorn.co.uk/ is a good place to start :)

[Charlieshafer]

Martin

I have a question for not just Martin, but anyone familiar with Welsh tunes. We had Calan at our concert series a couple of years ago and loved them, they also gave a great workshop for the fiddlers. One of the things Angharad had said was that most all of the old fiddle tunes were lost for a bit due that bit of history where things were squelched, and the modern players had a few things to go on, but reconstructing all the tunes was difficult or impossible. Has more been done over the past 2 years to find some original source material, and how true is that statement in your eyes?

[catmandu2]

I too will be interested to read from Martin, Evelyn, et al. I've no expertise generally, butve been studying the bardic trad repertoire (also having "died out" for a time - there's a brief account of it on the ap huw page) - different idiom than tunes maybe, but they all come from somewhere :) I'm a student to all of it. Cheers ~o)

[crisscross]

I played my last Welsh tune on my ukulele, but it should be playable on the mandolin as well.
It's called "Dic y cymro".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YKruaKbIyU
160186
Gotta learn some Welsh one of these days...

Didn't know "The Cuckoo's nest" was Welsh.
Nice arrangement, ukrobbiej!

[ukrobbiej]

Didn't know "The Cuckoo's nest" was Welsh.
Nice arrangement, ukrobbiej!

Yep, there are two versions of it in the Sian Phillips book already discussed. I've put the two versions together to make my own arrangement ��

Robbie

[Jack Roberts]

I bought the book. I haven't started playing from it yet, but i've been working out a couple of tunes in my head. When I get a chance over the long weekend I'll start.

[whistler]

Didn't know "The Cuckoo's nest" was Welsh.


There are versions of The Cuckoo's Nest from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, (America?) and even related tunes in Norway and Sweden. There are at least two distinct (but related) tunes by that name, or its Welsh equivalent Nyth y Gog or Nyth y Gwcw, in Welsh tune collections.

[Caleb]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGxaRXDCMxE

I really like this tune and have been meaning to work it up on mandolin.

[Shelagh Moore]

Faniglen is one I do frequently. It mostly seems to be claimed as Welsh although some have it as Manx or SW England as well.

[whistler]

This is a current favourite of mine. I've never known the title - I recalled it from memory (possibly incorrectly) after hearing it a few of times at sessions in South Wales. If anyone here can provide a title, I'd be very grateful.
https://youtu.be/Wo2W5o2-Vcc

[Caleb]

This is a current favourite of mine. I've never known the title - I recalled it from memory (possibly incorrectly) after hearing it a few of times at sessions in South Wales. If anyone here can provide a title, I'd be very grateful.
https://youtu.be/Wo2W5o2-Vcc
Beautiful tune, and nicely played. I don't know the name but I do want to learn it.

[whistler]

Faniglen is one I do frequently. It mostly seems to be claimed as Welsh although some have it as Manx or SW England as well.

Another name for it is Ymdaith Gwyr Dyfnaint (The March of the Men of Devon), which suggests a connection with SW England. But North Devon is only separated from South Wales by a narrow stretch of water, so there would very likely have been contact between people from both sides. Whether a Welshman composed it in honour of his transcanalar neighbours or appropriated it from them, who knows?

[Beanzy]

You may find the Clera resources useful.
http://www.alawoncymru.com/alawon/Tunes/Tunesal.html