Explore the history, tunes, musicians and composers of Cornish traditional music, a branch of the family of Celtic music experiencing a blossoming in contemporary performance and interest in its deep roots.
Watch the Cornish Trad YouTube channel for videos, channels and playlists.
Cornish National Music Archive launched
In August 2020 the Cornish National Music Archive (CNMA) was launched online. In their first blog post, CNMA co-ordinator Kate Neale said: As music researchers and enthusiasts, we wanted to bring wider attention to these important pieces of Cornish musical history and culture, and help grow the collection itself – which was where the idea…
“Accidental Mini Album” of Cornish fiddle music released on SoundCloud
Cornish fiddle player Neil McMahon (of Fools Rock amongst others) has recorded an “Accidental Mini Album” of Cornish traditional music played on the fiddle. Neil said “this weekend I inadvertently made a little album (sort of). It’s rough and ready, full of mistakes like proper folk belongs to be, entirely unpasturised and GM free.” Whilst…
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Jolly Rumble-O! Helston Flora Day and its music
On 8 May 2018 we made it to our first Helston Flora Day (also known as Furry Day). We gathered at 6.30am at Penzance Bus Station for the first bus to Helston. When we arrived we headed for breakfast at the Coinage Hall pub before wandering around town on the tail of the Hal-an-Tow, a…
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Unite and unite: Padstow May Day and its music
The Padstow Hobby Hoss comes out of a building watched by a group, he is being led by a man in a very odd costume – something like a Morris Dancer. People are singing in the background. The man in the horse-like costume keeps backing into the crowd and moving them back – this appears…
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Women and Cornish Trad workshop is online
https://youtu.be/SCN2xYd64v8 As part of the Hypatia Trust’s Women of Cornish Music project we had planned to deliver a workshop in Penzance on 4 April. In a little under a week I converted the workshop into a webinar and delivered it on 11 April. It was quite an experience, a slightly out of body experience, but…
Feature interview with Hilary Coleman and Frances Bennett
Gwaryoryon (Playing People). L-R Hilary Coleman (Clarinet), Liz Davies (Accordion), Jo Tagney (Fiddle) (courtesy of Hilary Coleman). I interviewed Hilary Coleman and Frances Bennett over Zoom a few weeks ago about their journeys in Cornish traditional music. I asked them about their views of being performers, composers, teachers and leaders of a stellar list of…
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The story of Henry Jenner
https://youtu.be/-ZWfPD1fJrQ In 2018, MAGA, the Cornish Language Partnership, produced a short documentary film in Cornish about Henry Jenner (1848-1934). He successfully campaigned to get Cornwall recognised as a Celtic nation and prove Cornish is a living language, as well as helping to establish Gorsedh Kernow in 1928. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF),…
Discovering Mary Kelynack’s polka
It’s always exciting when you read a fleeting note with a piece of music saying it was reconstructed from a fragment found in the Royal Institution of Cornwall. I first came across Mary Kelynack’s (as it is more affectionately known) pouring over the hundreds of tunes in Racca 2 – the largest compendium of old…