CRASDANT CONCERT AT
IRISH CULTURAL CENTER
FRI. - OCT 1, 7:00 PM
Irish Cultural Center
1106 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004
602-258-0109
www.azirish.com
Renowned Welsh triple harpist, Robin Huw Bowen brought together the most exciting folk band to come out of Wales in the last twenty years. He is joined by Stephen Rees, a fiddler known from his work with the premier Welsh folk band Ar Log, Andy McLauchlin, a flute player and a multi-instrumentalist, and the clogging and guitar of Huw Williams, who is known as part of the singer/songwriter duo Huw & Tony Williams and for the songs he has written that have been recorded by many other musicians. "Robin Huw Bowen's influence on the worlds of Welsh folk music and harping has been far-reaching. Of the few harpists worldwide who can play the triple harp, he is the foremost professional now specialising solely in this particular field. He is recognized internationally as the leading exponent of the Welsh national instrument and ranks among the most important figures that Welsh traditional music has produced." Robin Huw Bowen is probably the best known Welsh folk musician who tours regularly in North America. Like the Irish, the Welsh have their own style of percussive tap dance or clogging and in Wales the band traditionally includes the triple harp. Crasdant concerts are an exciting opportunity to explore the music and dance of one of the lesser-known Celtic cultures. |
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Huw Williams has been performing
Welsh step-dancing since the age of fifteen. Since then he has become a major
force in the field of folk music 
and
dance and his book on clogging is in its third printing. He won several titles
at the Welsh National Championships and is in great demand with both radio and
television in the U.K. His style of performance is unique, blending traditional
steps with contemporary ideas, and as one expert said, "...is the best
by far of anything that has ever been seen."
Welsh step-dancing (or Clogging, the term that is more popular in Wales) is the only type of Welsh dance which has continued in an unbroken tradition. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the puritanical revivals in Wales almost wiped out many forms of folk culture, and especially traditional dance. However the popularity of clogging's combination of infectious rhythms with dynamic style kept this tradition alive and it continues to thrive and evolve.
The main difference between Welsh clogging and other Celtic and American styles of solo percussive dance, is that Welsh dancers wear wooden clogs, and not merely hard shoes. The sole and heel of a Welsh clog are carved from one piece of wood, to form a shaped "platform" under the whole foot, onto which the leather upper is fixed, giving it the appearance of a normal shoe. However the sole does not bend, creating different movements for the feet, and different possibilities for percussive additions to the music.
Like American clogging, the Welsh include a variety of energetic "feats" or "tricks", and each clogger is eager to show off his own dexterity and inventiveness. Welsh clogging commonly includes steps such as a Coassack-style kicking squat (called the "Toby"), or high jumping, jumping over a bezum broom, or even trying to snuff out a lighted candle with his feet during the dance.
Stephen Rees: Fiddle,Pibgorn & Accordion
He is especially interested in researching Welsh traditional music, including performance practice of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. When not teaching and performing Stephen works on music programs for Welsh language television. |
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Andy McLauchlin: Flute, Pibgorn & Whistle Andy was born in St. Albans of a Scottish mother and an English father. A school trip to Snowdonia at the age of fourteen introduced him to Wales and started his fascination with Welsh culture and music. Later he learned to speak Welsh, went to Bangor University where he studied biochemistry and spent his free time learning Welsh folk dances. His first instrument had been the bassoon, but after hearing Welsh musician and instrument maker Jonathan Shorland perform, he took up the "simple-system" flute and the pibgorn.This type of flute, made of wood with several keys, is a remnant of the last century and isoften seen in Irish bands. The pibgorn is a hornpipe, with a cow's horn on either end and is reminiscent of the Breton bombard. |
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Robin Huw Bowen: Triple Harp
Robin is recognized internationally
as the leading exponent of the Welsh national instrument, the triple harp, which
has three sets of strings. He is noted for his research and publications of
the traditional dance music of Wales and also his research and recording of
the music of the Welsh Gypsies. In 2000 Robin was awarded the Glyndwr Award
for "an outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales".
Robin has played and toured with bands such as Mabsant and Cusan Tân, as well as touring solo regularly in Austrailia, North America, Germany and other parts of the world.
According to Ceolas:
Robin Huw Bowen is the foremost player of the uniquely Welsh triple harp, as well as a campaigner for its revival and manager of his own record company and press.
The triple harp has obscure origins, in the eighteenth century; it has three
rows of strings, the outer two in unision to each other, the middle for accidentals,
making it a fully chromatic instrument. It was popular for a time throughout
Europe, in art music as much as folk, but was later superseded by the pedal
harp (which uses the pedal for accidentals). The triple harp lived on only in
Wales, where it was extremely popular, and much cheaper and lighter than the
new pedal harps. It became known as the Welsh national instrument in the nineteenth
century
Born in Liverpool (the unofficial 'capital of North Wales', despite being in England), to Welsh-speaking parents, Robin learned simple celtic harp while at school, inspired by the Breton harper, Alan Stivell. He was first exposed to the triple harp by the brothers Dafydd and Gwyndaf Roberts who played the instrument with the traditional Welsh group Ar Log. They had learned from Nansi Richards, the last of the Welsh gypsy harpists, and he in turn learned from them. He played locally for serveral years, and joined the Welsh traditional group Mabsant in 1986, toured and recorded with them for two years and then set out on his own. Since then he has played solo and with the vocal duo Cusan Tan, with whom he currently tours.
In a linked strand, he worked for some years at the Welsh National library. While there he discovered several old collections of Welsh tunes and arrangements for harp. He set up his own press, Gwasg Teires (Triple Harp Press) to publish this material, one of the only current sources for traditional Welsh music; his book of two hundred hornpipes, Tro Llaw, mostly from this archives was published by the Welsh National Library.
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This site © 2003
Arizona
Irish Music Society
Born
and brought up in Wales, Stephen has a degree from Selwyn College, Cambridge
and currently teaches music at the Music University of Wales in Bangor.
He has been playing music for Welsh dancers for years, and in 1989 he
accompanied Huw Williams and Tim Brown when they won the national Eisteddfod
at Llanrwst. Stephen was a member of Ar Log, possibily the best known
of all of the Welsh folk groups, from 1982 until 1994.
