Cerdd dant

Cerdd Dant ( " harp strings music ") is a style of music from Wales, where an improvised lyrical text is sung with a harp as an accompanying instrument. The text follows the rules Cynghanedd (harmony), a metric in poetry, which is typical of the Welsh language.

Style

The style of the Cerdd Dant is shaped by the fact that the harp sings a tune, and it may be a traditional melody or new, traditional-style melody. The singer waits a few bars before the lyrics are sung in counter melody, is being careful that the main emphasis of this verse agrees with the main emphasis on the harp melody. The singing and playing the harp must finish each verse the same time, that is, the last word of a verse coincides with the emphasis on the last stroke of the harp melody. Traditionally, the counter- melody ( cyfalaw ) was always improvised, but today it is determined a priori and learned by the singer.