299 april 2018 £2 network news a guide to inspiring events in north wales the triple harp ~ au naturel ~ saying it like it is ~ nonviolent communication drowned village ~ eternal forest in spring ~ small is sacred ~ ecovillage living exhibitions ~ workshops ~ festivals ~ groups Network News 27 Penlan Street April 2018 PWLLHELI LL53 5DE Articles www.network-news.org The Triple Harp 4 Meurig Williams 07777 688440 (phone during office hours Au Naturel 6 or text anytime) Jane Porter [email protected] Ecovillage Living 7 A Guide to Inspiring Events Albert Bates in North Wales Drowned Village 36 Founded 1992 Ted Townsend Subscriptions Saying It Like It Is 37 £20 for 12 issues Adam May £12 for 6 issues Nonviolent Communication 38 Rik Midgley Advertisements Eighth Page: £10 Eternal Forest Newsletter 39 Bella Melville Quarter Page: £15 Half Page: £30 Small Is Sacred 40 Full Page: £60 John Papworth Back Cover: £100 Regular Features Payments Noticeboard 9 Cheques to: “Network News cic” April Calendar 10 Bank Transfers to: Exhibitions 24 Network News cic Sort Code: 08-92-99 Workshops In May & June 26 Account No: 65260034 Regular Weekly Groups & Classes 30 By PayPal Full Moon Meditation Network 41 www.facebook.com Advertisers Index 42 North Wales Network News Network News Outlets Inside Back Cover Network News is a Community Interest Company Front Cover Illustration by Femke van Gent (cic); Registered in England and www.femkevangent.nl Wales, Company No: 06264367; Registered Office: Printed on 100% post consumer waste paper by 20 Penlan Street Network News cic, Pwllheli PWLLHELI, LL53 5DE Welcome to the April Network News. Fem’s cover celebrates the Wales International Harp Festival which is being held at Galeri, Caernarfon, from April 1st - 7th. When people of different cultures meet for such simple pleasures, in an atmosphere of mutual respect, and to exchange their gifts, it feels good to be human! Why is this innate goodness so easily lost? The ordinary citizen of Saudi Arabia would not indiscrimately kill Yemeni children; the young man in Myanmar did not grow up hoping to torch the neighbouring villages; that child did not always yearn to be a mass shooter. Oil pioneers didn’t plan to fill the ocean with plastic; the town planner didn’t design a toxic environment; the farmer didn’t want to poison the countryside. So why does it happen? In 1957, Leopold Kohr wrote in The Breakdown of Nations: “If the body of a people becomes diseased with the fever of aggression, brutality, collectivism or massive idiocy it is because human beings, so charming as individuals or in small aggregations, have been welded into overconcentrated social units...”. He concludes, “There seems only one cause behind all forms of social misery: bigness”. In his 1942 book The Small Community, Arthur Morgan writes: “The small community has supplied the lifeblood of civilisation, and the neglect of it has been one of the primary reasons for the slowness and the interrupted course of human progress”. Finally, in Village Democracy (2006) John Papworth writes: “A restoration of community life and power is not some idealised daydream of what might be; it is a stark imperative necessity for human survival”. Page 40 All three of these visionaries walked their talk through long and generous lives, and have given us these clear guidebooks to the way out of hell. Order them through the nearest small bookshop! Blessings to all beings The Triple Harp Meurig Williams The harp is the only traditional By the 14th century, the ‘telyn rawn’ or instrument in Wales with an unbroken horse-hair-strung harp was losing ground history up to the present day. It is also the to the ‘telyn ledr’ or leather-harp – a instrument most often cited in Welsh change bemoaned by the poets, as seen in literature through the ages. a cywydd by Dafydd ap Gwilym. The earlier harp was a small instrument – We don’t really know what sort of music ‘telyn benglin’ (penglin = lap). It was also the early harpists would have played. The referred to as the ‘telyn farddol’ or bardic manuscript of Robert ap Huw (c. harp – an instrument 1580-1665) is the only clue, and it's taken a similar to others long time to decipher! This manuscript is throughout Europe. the oldest collection of music for the harp An example of this in the world today. type of harp can be According to the dictionary of Sion seen in a wood Dafydd Rhys, there were five different carving from the early modes of cerdd dant: Is-gywair, Cras- 15th century, on the gywair, Lleddf-gywair, Go-gywair, and bed frame of the Bragod-gywair. A series of technical terms nobleman Sir Rhys ap describing the hand movements has also Thomas of Dinefwr. survived, such as Tagiad y Fawd (thumb The carving shows a stop), Plethiad byr (short fold), Plethiad y harp player as part of pedwarbys (fourth finger fold), and so on. a military campaign. Over the centuries, patronage was Twisted horse-hair was used to make the central to the livelihood of the harpists – as harp strings, and there are many it was for the bards and other singers. A references to the 'telyn rawn' (rhawn = special system existed whereby degrees horse-hair). In all likelihood, metal strings were conferred on poets and musicians. were also used, as in Ireland. It is thought They were placed in distinct categories so that the Welsh harp was rather different that they could be 'licenced'. These from the Irish equivalent: with a straighter degrees determined how much they could pillar and lighter in construction. On some earn on their ‘clera’ travels (performing for harps, small L-shaped wooden pegs held money). the strings to the soundboard, touching The old bardic degree system broke the strings and causing them to ‘buzz’. down from the Tudor period onwards and These pegs were called gwarchïod. Harps patronage by noblemen ebbed away as in Wales were usually made from wood they became anglicised. Many Welsh (for the framework and pegs), animal skin harpists made a living in London, including (for wrapping the soundboard), bone (for some royal harpists. In Wales, the decline making the tuning pegs), and horse-hair was gradual. For example, in 1594, in a for the strings. According to description in single mansion on Anglesey, 13 harpists poetry, a harp would typically have around were listed over a period of only two 30 strings. The Welsh harp was always months. In the 18th and 19th centuries, played on the left shoulder. the harp makers of, for example Llanrwst, 4 Llangynog and Cardiff (Bassett Jones) were instrument that had any connection with very productive – a reflection of the the tavern scene, and as their influence popularity of the instrument in that period. grew, many turned their backs on the old The triple harp came to Britain during folk traditions. The appearance of the new the reign of Charles I, around 1630. It is double-action pedal harp was also a threat believed that the first ‘telyn deires’ or triple to the old Welsh harp in the 19th century. harp in Wales was made towards the end In a speech in Liverpool in 1886, John of the 17th century by Elis Sion Siamas of Thomas ('Pencerdd Gwalia') even Llanfachreth near Dolgellau. described the adherence to the triple harp The triple harp has a range of five as 'cruelty': octaves and about 95 "I have now reluctantly strings in three rows. The arrived at the conviction two outer rows are that it would be nothing diatonically tuned in unison, less than downright cruelty whilst the middle row is to handicap our tuned to the chromatic compatriots by offering any notes. The triple harp further encouragement for became popular first of all the study of an instrument amongst the Welsh harpists which would keep them so in London. Over the years, far behind in the race of its popularity in Wales itself progress and distinction." grew so much that it came In the 20th century, the to be known as the ‘The Welsh Harp’. triple harp was almost completely ousted Dozens of these instruments were made by the pedal harp, and musical emphasis during the 18th and 19th centuries. moved from traditional to classical. But the The triple harp probably took hold in tradition was kept alive by Nansi Richards, North Wales initially, but before long it Telynores Maldwyn (the Montgomeryshire spread to the south, thanks to the Harpist), who was trained in the traditional enthusiastic support of individuals such as style by Telynor Ceiriog at the beginning Lady Llanofer, Augusta Hall (1802-1896). of the 20th century. During the 18th century, players such as The two most prominent leaders of the John Parry, the blind harpist from recent revival are Llio Rhydderch and Rhiwabon, came to be known as one of Robin Huw Bowen. Between them, they the best harpists of his time, and in the have put the old triple harp back on its next century ‘Telynor Cymru’ (The Welsh feet in its own right, rather than in the Harpist), John Roberts of Newtown – shadow of other kinds of harps, and have descended from the Wood Gypsy family – highlighted the instrument's unique was also responsible for spreading the technique and sound. popularity of the instrument. Meurig Williams is the Coordinator of the The triple harp was light enough for Society for the Traditional Instruments of players to carry on their backs, and this Wales (CLERA). meant that they appeared at fairs and http://www.sesiwn.com taverns as well as at mansions. But the See Calendar for CLERA sessions and for Methodists were dead against any the Wales International Harp Festival 5 Au Naturel Jane Porter With all of the current concerns over greasy, in the slightest, to touch.