Ancient bards, Welsh gipsies, and Celtic folklore in the cauldron of regeneration

Western Folklore, Fall 1998 by Blyn-Ladrew, Roslyn

The details of John Roberts's career are too voluminous to discuss further here. Suffice it to say that his long career began shortly after a Welsh cultural revival had begun. The movement included such developments as the 1789 revival of eisteddfodau by the Gwyneddigion in Corwen and the 1792 bardic gorsedd on Primrose Hill, London. The interest begun by this revival continues today, as can be seen by the many local, regional and national eisteddfodau, and their North American offspring. Although some of the traditions which were seemingly "revived" were actually "invented" as pointed out by Morgan (1983), the traditions are now firmly embedded in contemporary Welsh culture and their authenticity unquestioned by many.

The Roberts family's repertoire is primarily Welsh, with occasional English and operatic pieces, not Hungarian or some other "exotic" eastern European strain popularly perceived as being the musical repertoire of "Gipsies." Rather they achieved epithets such as "Royal Welsh Harpist" or "Telynor Cymru" by playing such tunes as "Llwyn Onn" (The Ash Grove), "Ar Hyd y Nos" (All Through the Night) and "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" (Land of My Fathers, the national anthem), "Rhyfelgyrch Gw@r Harlech" (Men of Harlech) and "The Bells of Aberdovey."10 They excelled in the art of pen///on singing to harp accompaniment, one of the most challenging competitive styles in the eisteddfodau. "Pennill" simply means "stanza," and in this spontaneous singing style the voice must accommodate the phrasing of the stanzas to the harp's melody and rhythm. In competitions the singer does not know in advance what time the harpist will play. Permillion singers are not judged so much for vocal quality as such as for their ability to combine pleasingly the words with the harp and to end the vocal stanza as the harp melody ends. Success in permillion was a pinnacle of achievement, demonstrating vocal dexterity and fluency in Welsh; the high regard in which it was held is similar to the respect commanded by tellers of Gaelic hero-tales.

As an ensemble, the Roberts family were known as "The Original Cambrian Minstrels," suggesting a link to the Welsh tribal past through the latinized term "Cambrian" based on Old Celtic combroges (compatriots), from which "Cymru," the Welsh name for Wales, also derives. John Roberts, the father, was described as "the oldest living Welsh harpist" in the program of a performance for Queen Victoria on August 24, 1889. His son Albert won at least nineteen harp prizes at the national eisteddfodau and "According to the Ancient Right and Priveleges of the British Bards" (admittedly an antiquarian invention, but a prestigious one), was designated "Chief Harpist on the Welsh Triple Harp" (E.E. Roberts 1981:56-60). Much of their repertoire, as indicated from the publicity materials reproduced, is of clear eighteenth- or nineteenth-century origin, with known composers and poets. Although new compositions could possibly be played in an "ancient bardic" style, if such a style were truly known, it is unlikely that recent tunes, being played on relatively new instruments by relative newcomers to Wales, could represent the "ancient" bard.