Welsh folk music

[1]During the British folk revival of the early 1900s, some of the verses in the Hen Penillion (Old Stanzas) were exploded [2] into longer songs, for example Ar Lan y Môr and Marwnad yr Ehedydd.

[3] This tradition descends from the form used by the early bards to sing their poetry to Welsh kings, princes and princesses.

[3] Singer Arfon Gwilym explains that "the plygain tradition survives mainly in Montgomeryshire and takes place in churches and chapels over a six week period during Christmas and the new year."

"[3] Singer Siân James explains that "a ballad which caught my imagination from a very young age was the very beautiful Yr Eneth ga'dd ei gwrthod (The rejected maiden) - a 19th century ballad from the Cynwyd area near Bala, Gwynedd, which tells the story of a young girl who, finding herself pregnant out of wedlock, is thrown out of her family home by her father, ostracised by her community and left destitute."

A well known Welsh folk music group is Ar Log: "By the early eighties Ar Log was travelling Europe and North & South America for around nine months of the year with a wealth of traditional Welsh folk music at our disposal, from haunting love songs and harp airs, to melodic dance tunes, and rousing sea shanties.

After losing ground to the pedal harp in the 19th century, it has been re-popularised through the efforts of Nansi Richards, Llio Rhydderch and Robin Huw Bowen.

[6][full citation needed] The earliest written records of the Welsh harpists' repertoire are contained in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, which documents 30 ancient harp pieces that make up a fragment of the lost repertoire of the medieval Welsh bards.

A related instrument is one type of bagpipe chanter, which when played without the bag and drone is called a pibgorn (hornpipe).