The Pencerdd's Toolkit. Cognitive and Musical Hierarchies in Medieval
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JYVASKYLA STUDIES IN THE ARTS 78 Pekka Toivanen THE PENCERDD'S TOOLKIT Cognitive and Musical Hierarchies in Medieval Welsh Harp Music Esitetii.anJyvaskylan yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Musica-rakennuksen salissa (M103) lokakuun 13. paivana 2001 klo 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyvaskyla, in the Building Musica, Auditorium M103, on October 13, 2001 at 12 o'clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF � JYVASKYLA JYVASKYLA 2001 THE PENCERDD'S TOOLKIT Cognitive and Musical Hierarchies in Medieval Welsh Harp Music JYVASKYLA STUDIES IN THE ARTS 78 Pekka Toivanen THE PENCERDD'S TOOLKIT Cognitive and Musical Hierarchies in Medieval Welsh Harp Music UNIVERSITY OF � JYV ASKYLA JYVASKYLA 2001 Editors Matti Vainio Department of Musicology, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo and Marja-Leena Tynkkynen Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7889-1 ISBN 978-951-39-7889-1 ISSN 0075-4633 ISBN 951-39-1072-5 ISSN 0075-4633 Copyright© 2001, by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä and ER-Paino Ky, Lievestuore 2001 THIS WORK IS FONDLY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF PETER CROSSLEY-HOLLAND (1916-2001); A GREAT SCHOLAR, BROAD-MINDED HUMAN AND A FRIEND. ABSTRACT Toivanen Pekka The Pencerdd's Toolkit-Cognitive and Musical Hierarchies in Medieval Welsh Harp Music Jyvaskyla: Jyvaskyla University Press, 2001, 246 p. + CD. (Jyvaskyla Studies in the Arts, ISSN 0075-4633; 78) ISBN 951-39-1072-5 Tiivistelma Diss. In the scholarship of Western music various non-written processes of learning, adopting, perceiving, making or teaching have generally been more or less ignored. This work is an attempt to introduce some interdisciplinary methodological possibilities, obtained from contemporary ethnomusicology and cognitive musicology, to the research of early music. The reference material and methodology deal to a great extent with the dialectic between the oral and the written in music; different levels and kinds of variation and variable factors within various structural hierarchies of music; adoption and transmission processes of music; processes of change; culture studies. In this study the existence and importance of oral adoption and transmission within medieval Welsh harp music tradition has been one of the main hypotheses. That tradition was based upon highly educated professional musicianship, culminated in the degree of pencerdd, i.e. 'the chief of music or craft'. Medieval Welsh harp music was essentially an oral music culture, of which very little evidence in musical notation has survived. The main piece of musical evidence is the Robert ap Huw manuscript from c. 1613. A piece of music in that manuscript is not necessarily the original creation of its attributed author, but a version comprising numerous rhythmic, melodic or other changes over a period of time. In connection with medieval Welsh harp music we may speak of culturally correct and hierarchically structured referential frameworks for creating, learning and making music. The hierarchical relationship of various elements of musical expression helped the musician to employ his toolkit for composing, performing, ornamenting or improvising. Such hierarchical systems, together with their adoption through systems and rules of education, was the essential foundation which enabled musicians to keep the music alive and in memory for centuries, as suggested in my conclusion. Some reconstruction attempts, based on the research results, together with contemporary musical experiments on medieval Welsh harp music are presented in the joint CD of this study. Keywords: pencerdd, orality, the Robert ap Huw manuscript, ethnomusicology, interdisciplinarity, harp. Author's Address Emannantie 25 B 22, 40740 Jyvaskyla, Finland Author's Email [email protected] Reviewers Dr Sally Harper (University of Bangor/School of Music) Dr Hc1nnu Sc1ha (Folk Arts Centre, Kaustinen) Opponent Dr Sally Harper PREFACE In early February 1989, when studying early music and historical harps at the 'Akademie fur alte Musik' in Bremen, one fellow student brought me a facsimile edition of the Robert ap Huw manuscript; music for the harp written in tablature notation. My first impression was that I had come across with an ancient secret code system with obscure signs, strange combination of letters and lines, together with an incomprehensible language. In those days, however, I was thoroughly convinced that the musical contents of that manuscript had a lot in common with the mainstream Renaissance harp and lute music, and that the tablature script could be deciphered with the help of thorough comparable research related to other contemporary tablature systems. That vantage point, however, led to a dead end. Several disappointments I came across let me abandon the study on the manuscript for several years. It was only January 1995 when my attention was drawn on the Robert ap Huw manuscript again. My friend Robin Gwyndaf, whom I had learned to know three years earlier during the Joensuu Song festival, introduced me to Robert Evans, an instrument maker, musician and committed researcher of early Welsh music. Conversations with him gave me a new 'kick' to get back to work on the manuscript and its music, this time only from a completely different access point than in the late 1980s. I got a chance to present my ideas in July 1995, when a symposium on the Robert ap Huw manuscript was organised by the Centre of Advanced Welsh Music Studies in Bangor. Albeit my study then was at very initiative state, I was given that much encouraging feedback in discussion sessions that I decided to go on further. It took more than six years after the Bangor symposium before this present work was ready to be publicly discussed. In the last six years many ideas and paradigms have come and gone, many changes have occurred both in relation to this study and my private life, all of which have not been very easy to cope with. Since I have been writing this alongside my duties as a music lecturer, and not as a full-time researcher, the process has been relatively slow and, unfortunately, has had its negative side effects as well. There are many people, both in Wales and Finland, to whom I am deeply indebted for their assistance and encouragement. My foremost gratitude goes to Dr. Sally Harper, who, since the very early stages of my 'Robert ap Huw project' has been a very special source of encouragement. From her I have got really valuable feedback, and deserved criticism during all these years. Her, and her husband John Harper's support to my project has meant a lot to me. I am in deep gratitude to the late professor Peter Crossley-Holland, whom I learned to know in July 1995. He and his writings, his charming personality, amazing amount of knowledge, together with several discussions we had, have been a very special source of inspiration to me. Without his encouragement this study of mine would probably never have seen the daylight. It is to Peter's memory and work that this study is dedicated, with greatest respect and gratitude to his widow Nicole. I also want to express my sincere thanks to Robert Evans, with whom we have exchanged ideas for several times in last six years, sometimes in rather heated discussions, but always in a spirit of mutual respect and friendship. He is a real contemporary pencerdd. I am also in deep gratitude to Robin Gwyndaf, for his contributions to my work and his very special friendship. He has given me a lot of valuable reference material, related to my work, and during my frequent visits to Cardiff he and his wife Eleri have given me hospitality beyond limits. I also want to thank D. Roy Saer for helping me at the early stages of this study. Furthermore I want to express my gratitude to Robin Huw Bowen ('Telynor Moreia'), the renowned master of the Welsh triple harp, for getting me access to the manuscript section at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and for hospitality and inspiring conversations during my stays in Aberystwyth. Very special thanks are due to Phyllis Kinney and Dr. Meredydd Evans for their valuable contributions to my project, and friendship during all these years. I also want to thank Leslie and Tony Conran, Stephen Rees and all the other people in Wales I have had privilege to learn to know. There are also many people in my native Finland to be thanked for their assistance and contributions. Although I have written this study without an official supervisor, which at least partially explains the apparent flawbacks and misconceptions in this work, I have received valuable help and encouragement from professor Jukka Louhivuori at various stages of my study. As an expert of both cognitive musicology and ethnomusicology, his contributions to the theoretical and methodological part of this work deserve my deepest gratitude. The second reviewer of my work, doctor Hannu Saha from the Folk Music Institute, has given me many valuable comments and suggestions, for which I am very grateful. I also want to thank professor Matti Vainio for accepting this study to be published in the Jyvaskyla Studies in the Arts series, and the Department of Music and the Faculty of Human Sciences (both in the University of Jyvaskyla) for giving me funds that enabled me to take part in various conferences and symposiums, in which I had opportunities to present my research work. I am also indebted to Ph.D. Michael Coleman for proof reading the abstract. For the apparently low standard of English in the other parts of this study I am the only one to be blamed. My very special thanks are due to Sanna Kivinen and Minja Niiranen, two highly accomplished musicians, charming personalities and very dear friends.