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Folk Music

There is a tradition of instrumental folk music in Wales. The harp has been closely associated with Wales for a very long time, and one kind of harp, the triple harp is uniquely Welsh. Other specifically Welsh instruments included the crwth and the pibgorn, though both fell out of general use by the end of the 18th century.

Due to Nonconformist Christian disapproval, the instrumental folk tradition fell into decline through the 19th and early 20th centuries, but has since seen a revival and is now arguably as strong as ever. The principal instruments are the harp and the fiddle, but many other instruments are used, and both the crwth and pibgorn are again being played by a small but growing number of people.

Wales also has a long tradition of folk song which, like the instrumental tradition, and for the same reasons, was long in decline but is now flourishing again. One notable kind of Welsh song is cerdd dant which, loosely, is an improvised performance following quite strict rules in which poetry is sung to one tune against the accompaniment of (usually) a harp to a different tune.

The modern folk music is alive and flourishing in the many folk clubs throughout Wales and is show-cased every year in the International Folk Festival held in Pontardawe in South Wales.

Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared and performed by the entire community (not by a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth.

During the 20th century, the term folk music took on a second meaning: it describes a particular kind of popular music which is culturally descended from or otherwise influenced by traditional folk music. Like other popular music, this kind of folk music is most often performed by experts and is transmitted in organized performances and commercially distributed recordings. However, popular music has filled some of the roles and purposes of folk music where it has replaced it.

The appeal of folk music is of a special kind, distinct from the appeal of classical or popular music. Typically, folk music lacks the technical sophistication and complexity that is often found in classical music and (to a lesser extent) in popular music. Yet the musical inventiveness of ordinary people, especially when acting together in a tight-knit musical community, should not be underestimated. Works of folk music are often experienced by modern listeners as extraordinarily beautiful or stirring. A particular virtue that often stands out in folk music is its purity: it often obtains exceptional esthetic results from the simplest of musical means