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When Bragod perform music and
poetry from Wales dating from the 17th century
onwards, they draw on the sound world they have
discovered through years of experiment, using
Pythagorean tuning and careful copies of original
instruments.
Their approach is strongly
guided by the music and ideas found in Robert ap
Huw's manuscript (written circa 1613 but
containing music from the 14th century onwards),
contemporary English and Continental musical
treatises as well as late-medieval treatises in
Welsh on string music (cerdd dant).
They draw on the printed and
manuscript collections of the last three centuries
for popular tunes and verse; sometimes choosing
'folk songs', sometimes a handful of more or less
independent verses in the highly compressed form
known as 'hen benillion'. ' 'R Adar Bach' is two
such verses with an added chorus. Bragod has set
the words to a tune from Canu'r Cymry, a
folk-song collection by Phyllis Kinney and Meredydd
Evans, 1984. Bragod's conservative use of
Pythagorean tuning, though the verses may date from
the 18th or 19th centuries, colours the tonal
qualities heard in their performance. It is not
impossible that Pythagorean tuning was used on the
crwth until the instrument fell out of use in the
late 18th century. The duo takes the liberty of
using the combination of crwth and voice even when
performing ritual music e.g.wassailing
songs. Originally, these would have been sung by a
handful of men. Bragod does not perform
'traditional Welsh songs' in the sense of carefully
reproducing an orally transmitted repertoire or
performing style. They knowingly drag later popular
verse and music back into Robert ap Huw's sound
world.
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