<I>Cerdd Dant</I>

STUDIA CELTICA, XXXV (2001), 325–340 Issues in Dating the Repertory of Cerdd Dant SALLY HARPER University of Wales, Bangor Secular music in late medieval Wales largely falls under the umbrella term of cerdd dant, literally ‘the art of the string’, which implies performance on harp or crwth.1 Because such music was largely reliant on improvisation, there are few written sources, and the nature and extent of the repertory therefore remain somewhat elusive.2 This essay offers a preliminary survey of issues relating to the dating of cerdd dant, exploring the periods of formulation, decline and proliferation. Given their implied etymological association, one might expect cerdd dant and cerdd dafod, its poetic sister art, to share broadly similar chronological parameters, with the set forms of string music blossoming concurrently with the strict-metre cywydd from the early fourteenth century until the mid 1520s, when it is generally agreed that the great era of cerdd dafod had drawn to a close.3 But this can by no means be proved. The earliest extant document associated with cerdd dant is a scarcely legible page of twenty-two titles in NLW MS Peniarth 55, copied around 1496.4 Copies of more substantial docu- ments dealing with theoretical aspects of the art – some of which imply that cerdd dant was conceived as early as 1100 – date only from after 1550, and even then the evidence is partial and often confused.5 There are no musical sources to match the comprehen- 1 This piece would not have been possible without 4 NLW MS Peniarth 55, p. 106, a list of cerdd dant the invaluable groundwork undertaken in the area of pieces without heading. This page is unrelated to the cerdd dant by the late Peter Crossley-Holland rest of the book, which contains poetry. Daniel Huws (1916–2001). His death occurred shortly before the dates the manuscript at c.1496 on the basis of one of text went to press, and the article is fondly dedicat- the cywyddau. A facsimile of p. 106 appears in Dafydd ed to his memory. I am also grateful to Bethan Miles, Wyn Wiliam, ‘Ifan ab y Gof, Llywelyn ab Ifan ab y Dafydd Wyn Wiliam and Daniel Huws for generous Gof a Dafydd ab y Gof (Dafydd Athro): Tri chyfan- advice on various aspects of the discussion. soddwr cerddoriaeth o Fôn?’ (‘Three Anglesey com- 2 Some of the most important early studies of cerdd posers?’), Welsh Music History/Hanes Cerddoriaeth dant include T. Gwynn Jones, ‘Bardism and romance’, Cymru, 4 (2000), 29. Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmodorion 5 Claims for the origins of the art appear in the the- (1913–14), 207–312; W. S. Gwynn Williams, Welsh oretical document Cadwedigaeth Cerdd Dannau, and in National Music and Dance (London, 1932); Peter some versions of the related treatise, Dosbarth Cerdd Crossley-Holland, ‘Secular homophonic music in Dannau. Sources for both texts are collated by Bethan Wales in the Middle Ages’, Music and Letters, 23 (1942), Miles in ‘Swyddogaeth a chelfyddyd y crythor’ 135–62. A collection of more recent essays appears in (University of Wales Aberystwyth, MA thesis), ii, Welsh Music History/Hanes Cerddoriaeth Cymru, 3 (1999). 557–69. The earliest known version of the 3 Signalled by the Caerwys Eisteddfod of 1523 and Cadwedigaeth is NLW MS 17116-B (Gwysaney 28) of the death of Tudur Aled some two years later. See, c.1560. For a fuller discussion, see Sally Harper, ‘So Eurys Rowlands, ‘Tudur Aled’, A Guide to Welsh how many Irishmen went to Glyn Achlach? Early Literature 1282–c.1550, ii, ed. A. O. H. Jarman and accounts of the formation of Cerdd Dant’, Cambrian G. R. Hughes; rev. D. Johnston (Cardiff, 1997), 298. Medieval Celtic Studies (forthcoming, 2001). 326 SALLY HARPER sive fourteenth-century bardic grammars. Indeed, most of what we know of the musical characteristics of cerdd dant derives from a much later document: the harp tablature copied by Robert ap Huw (c.1580–1665) in c.1613.6 Robert ap Huw was himself a pencerdd (master craftsman) on the harp,7 but apparently one of the last to play music within this tradition, and his unique manuscript may primarily have been an attempt to preserve an archaic and fast-disappearing repertory. The remnants of the cerdd dant tradition are thus poor competition for the wealth of extant poetry produced by the beirdd yr uchelwyr from the time of Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl. 1330–50) onwards. But they form part of what was once a considerable corpus of music. Around 1500, a fashion emerged for compiling long inventories of cerdd dant titles, and extant lists provide evidence of over 300 items additional to those notated in Robert ap Huw’s book.8 The earliest surviving list is that in Peniarth 55 mentioned above, but this was soon followed by more complete lists, which classify items in accordance with genre. Some were drawn up by collector-copyists or bardic genealogists: at least one such document may have derived from a lost original compiled by the poet and genealogist Gruffudd Hiraethog (d. 1564).9 Robert ap Huw was to make two similar inventories of titles in the back of his own manuscript in the early seventeenth century.10 The earliest comprehensive lists of cerdd dant items occur in the manuscript Gwysaney 28, copied c.1560. In addition to several pages of genealogical information and various inventories of tunes, there are two parallel lists of athrawon (masters) of the harp and crwth (see Table 3),11 a version of the Statute of Gruffudd ap Cynan, and a copy of the theoretical treatise Cadwedigaeth Cerdd Dannau, which opens with an account of how cerdd dant was formulated. This account is discussed in more detail elsewhere,12 and it is suf- ficient to note here the most significant of its claims: namely, that the rules of cerdd dant and the associated twenty-four measures were first codified in Ireland around 1100. There is nothing in the music of Robert ap Huw’s manuscript or in the inventories to confirm such an auspicious pedigree, although certain etymological features of the measures do suggest Irish or possibly Norse etymology. The Cadwedigaeth claims might lead us to assume that cerdd dant covers an impressive chronological span of some 500 years, given that it was still being played by Robert ap Huw in the seventeenth century. But what is striking about Robert ap Huw’s repertory is that it apparently contains no music created during his own lifetime. This is an entirely retrospective compilation, where all of the pieces seem to have been in exis- 6 It is usually maintained that the music in the inventories as vol. ii of ‘Swyddogaeth’. Robert ap Huw manuscript (BL MS Add. 14905) was 9 Ibid., ii, 637. copied in or around 1613, since these figures appear 10 BL MS 14905, pp. 102–4 and 106. in a pattern of decorative semi-circles after the piece 11 NLW MS 17116–B (Gwysaney 28), fo. 65v (crwth ‘Caniad Tro Tant’ on p. 69; pp. 23–34 are reputed- list) and fo. 61r (harp list). A facsimile of the latter ly copied from a lost text belonging to the harper appears in Welsh Music History/Hanes Cerddoriaeth Wiliam Penllyn, who graduated pencerdd at the Cymru, 3 (1999), 196. Transcriptions of both lists Caerwys Eisteddfod of 1567. Robert ap Huw was a appear in ibid., 156–7 (crwth) and 196 (harp), and in grandson of the Anglesey poet Siôn Brwynog Miles, ‘Swyddogaeth’, ii, 702–4. See also Peter (1510–62). Crossley-Holland, The Composers in the Robert ap Huw 7 See Robert ap Huw’s own englyn of c.1615 in BL Manuscript (Bangor, 1998), 3. A summary version of MS Add. 14898, p. 79, quoted in D. W. Wiliam, Robert the text appears in Welsh Music History/Hanes ap Huw (1580–1665): Astudiaeth o’i Gefndir, ei Fywyd a’i Cerddoriaeth Cymru, 3 (1999), 183–205 (Welsh version, Waith (Denbigh, 1975), 33. 206–16). 8 Bethan Miles transcribes and collates most of the 12 Sally Harper, ‘How many Irishmen’. ISSUES IN DATING THE REPERTORY OF CERDD DANT 327 TABLE 1: The Earliest Extant List of Cerdd Dant Items (NLW MS Peniarth 55) NLW MS Peniarth 55, p. 106 The Robert ap Huw Manuscript (BL MS Add. (item nos. are editorial) 14905) 1. [Iok]yn voyl 2. y gvyn pibydd kaniad y gwyñ bibydd, pp. 36–7 3. y Kanvad ar gein K aiddegvn 4. y Kanvad ar geink sisana kaniad suwsana, pp. 54–5 5. barnod Ivan ab y gov kaniad barnad Ifan ab y goo, pp. 71–6 6. barnod ddavydd ab y gov 7. barnod ddav/barnod ddavvdd ab gvilym 8. Kanyad ar geink ddavydd ab gwilym 9. Kanyad genvrevydd kaniad gwen frewu (listed, p.106) 10. Anrreg ddevi anrheg ddewi (listed, p.104) 11. gsteg Ian ab yg ov yr osteg fawr ne osteg Ifan fab y gof, pp. 20–2 12. gos deg ddavydd ab y gov = gosteg dafydd athro, pp. 15–17 13. gos deg bedn trevddvn = gosteg lwyteg, p. 22 14. pibe morvydd kaniad pibe morfydd, pp. 90–6 15. y Kanyad Krych geink ovydd 16. y Kanyad ar geink havddvyd 17. tvrch trvyth 18. Hvn venllian kaniad hun wenllian, pp. 84–9 19. Kanyad y marchog gvyddyl 20. Barnod syrys 21. Kanyad ar geink ryffydd [cf. kaingk Ryffydd ab adda ab dafydd, p. 57] 22. y Kanyad nevydd ar y Krras gyweir tence in some form for at least a century before they were copied.

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