Bardic Triads (Welsh)

[Fool Coyote]

Bardic Triads
Peniarth 20

Tri ryw brifgerd ysyd, nyt amgen:
kerd dant, kerd vegin, a cherd dauawt.

Teir prifgerd tant ysyd, nyt amgen:
kerd grwth, kerd delyn, a cherd timpan.

Teir prifgerd megin ysyd, nyt amgen:
organ, a phibeu, a cherd y got [god].

Teir prifgerd tauawt ysyd:
prydu, a dachanu, a chanu gan delyn.


TRANSLATION:

There are three primary musical forms, namely:
string music; bellows music; and music of the tongue.[1]

The three primary forms of string music, namely:
court music, harp music, and drum music.

The three primary forms of bellows music, namely:
organ, and pipes, and music of the bag.[2]

The three primary forms of singing:
poetry, recitation, and singing with the harp.

NOTES

1. "music of the tongue": i.e. singing

2. "music of the bag": i.e. bagpipes

SOURCE:
Harper, Sally. "Instrumental Music in Medieval Wales." North American Journal of Welsh Studies, Vol. 3, no. 1. Flint, MI: North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History, 2004.

www.maryjones.us/ctexts/triads5.html

[Conn]

Oh cool! I love how they word things. I never would have thought of music having so many classifications, lol.

[ladyanastasia]

The three primary forms of string music, namely:
court music, harp music, and drum music



ummmmm.... ok.... I'm the stupid one.... How is Drum music classified as "string music"?

[Fool Coyote]

May 31, 2008 22:44:25 GMT -5 ladyanastasia said:

The three primary forms of string music, namely:
court music, harp music, and drum music



ummmmm.... ok.... I'm the stupid one.... How is Drum music classified as "string music"?

I would imagine it has something to the similar set up on a harp or a stringed instrument, music made through the vibration of a tightly fitted for a vibration?

[ladyanastasia]

May 31, 2008 23:27:11 GMT -5 Fool Coyote said:

May 31, 2008 22:44:25 GMT -5 ladyanastasia said:

The three primary forms of string music, namely:
court music, harp music, and drum music



ummmmm.... ok.... I'm the stupid one.... How is Drum music classified as "string music"?

I would imagine it has something to the similar set up on a harp or a stringed instrument, music made through the vibration of a tightly fitted for a vibration?

lol..... see, you're just as confused as I am on that one....

Nope... still don't get it... percussion instrament... Not a stringed instrament

[Greywolf]

The word translated as 'drum' is timpan. The timpan is referred to in several Medieval Welsh and Irish manuscripts and is not a drum at all. It's a stringed instrument. It had three strings, usually of metal (either bronze or silver) and seems to have been played either with the fingernails or a plectrum. There are various ideas at to what form it took. For me, the most likely seems to be a long-necked lute like the Persian setar (which means 'three strings'), but with a circular sound-box and a sound-board made from stretched animal hide, hence the use of the Latin loan-word, timpan, meaning a small round drum, to describe it.

[Igori]

Just some rando butting in unnecessarily:

The type of drum I play is an Irish style frame drum...

And my understanding of Welsh is basic-at-best, so, there's that...

But I thought grwth was just the changed form'uh crwth, or harp/fiddle.

And also, there's many'uh way to play an instrament, namely being: on a drum where you can change the pitch, like a framedrum and modernday timpans, you are stretching and releasing the skin frame like you would a string, with a plectrum or a mallet to strike. Dulcimers are a great example'uv this, and when you think about it, a drum is sort of like a stretched string. Whether it's a single flat line or a single flat plane, you can manipulate it acoustically the same. Or, if it helps you better, think of a one-stringed-guitar as a drum, a stringed drum. You tapoutta rythm, bend the plane, and the box reverberates it around, creating different sounds.

Just my thought