Today's Oak & Thorn show featured English, Welsh, Breton, and Spanish musicians - but no Irish or Scottish! Check out the playlist and leave a comment on the blog.
Oh, give him a break. You know we almost never get the chance to hear any Irish and Scottish music on these "Celtic" music shows!
What with all the crwth and pibgorn music, plygain groups, gwerz and kan-ha-diskan singers, biniou-bombarde duos and gaita players, I can't even remember what an Irish fiddle sounds like, let alone a pipe band.
I've almost forgotten the words to "Fields of Athenry". Do you think if I put in a special request someone might play it?
You know, I'm not sure I've ever played that song on the show. And coincidentally I just heard a really good rendition of it, on a new compilation album the station received last month...
Crwth, pibgorn, gwerz, biniou-bombard, gaita, check. What's a plygain group? (guessing Welsh) And kan-ha-diskan singer: qu'est-ce que c'est?
You'd probably only play plygain once a year. Plygain singing is a very old Welsh Christmas tradition, which involves keeping a vigil on Christmas Eve and singing traditional carols at about 3 in the morning. There's a page about it at the National Museum of Wales site. Also, check out this BBC page on Christmas in Wales.
Kan ha diskan is a kind of Breton call and response singing, pretty much the core of Breton trad music. If you listen to Breton instrumental dance music, you can hear the instruments, especially bombarde and biniou, doing that same kind of call and response.
Nobody seems to know which came first. Maybe the instruments were intended to imitate human voices, or maybe kan ha diskan was invented so people could dance without instruments, like in Scottish mouth music.
Kan-ha-diskan!albionwoodAugust 23 2008, 17:02:46 UTC
Ah, yes, this is very familiar! Alan Stivell did several of these, awesomely. And there's a track by Denez Prigent that really struck me as sounding like a Breton puirt-a-beul.
Thanks for putting a name to one of my favorite musical styles! Now I can find more of it.
Reply
What with all the crwth and pibgorn music, plygain groups, gwerz and kan-ha-diskan singers, biniou-bombarde duos and gaita players, I can't even remember what an Irish fiddle sounds like, let alone a pipe band.
I've almost forgotten the words to "Fields of Athenry". Do you think if I put in a special request someone might play it?
[/sarcasm]
Reply
Crwth, pibgorn, gwerz, biniou-bombard, gaita, check. What's a plygain group? (guessing Welsh) And kan-ha-diskan singer: qu'est-ce que c'est?
Reply
Also, check out this BBC page on Christmas in Wales.
Kan ha diskan is a kind of Breton call and response singing, pretty much the core of Breton trad music. If you listen to Breton instrumental dance music, you can hear the instruments, especially bombarde and biniou, doing that same kind of call and response.
Nobody seems to know which came first. Maybe the instruments were intended to imitate human voices, or maybe kan ha diskan was invented so people could dance without instruments, like in Scottish mouth music.
Some kan ha diskan, on YouTube
Reply
Thanks for putting a name to one of my favorite musical styles! Now I can find more of it.
Reply
Leave a comment