Welcome / Dynnargh
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. Find out about our Cornish Celtic band, Money to the Moon.
Guise dancing sources – newspaper transcriptions
Over the last few years we have been researching guise dancing, a form of mumming that takes place during the twelve days of Christmas (and in recent times, a few days before). There is a wealth of information about the tradition in historic newspapers, and we have begun to transcribe the many wonderful articles on…
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Cornish traditional music on YouTube
I’ve created a YouTube playlist called Cornish Trad. I’ve selected 45 videos over the last year or so, and the list will keep growing. They represent, to us at least, the best of Cornish trad music, mainly instrumental, on YouTube at the moment. If you have a video that we’re missing out on, drop us…
Penzance Cornish Music Session is one year old
It’s been a phenomenal year for the Penzance’s Cornish Traditional Music Session every Thursday night, 8-10pm, at the Admiral Benbow pub. Time for some thank yous, foremost to John Gallagher, session leader and founder for introducing us to incredible music and creating wonderful set lists; to Chris Morgan, landlord of the Benbow, for your hospitality…
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Can Jack and Pencarrow
We decided, on a whim, to make a recording of the two beautiful tunes Can Jack and Pencarrow. It was raining steadily outside, and we had been lamenting the lack of Cornish traditional music on YouTube. A little bit of direct action, if you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4Ei6g_ZYI Here’s our description: These two beautiful tunes are from…
Article on Historical Guise Dancing and its Music
As we move rapidly towards autumn and winter our minds are drawn towards one of west Cornwall’s wonderful traditions – guise dancing. Guise dancing is an ancient tradition from west Cornwall performed during the twelve days of Christmas. It is a form of mumming, whereby participants disguise themselves (hence the term ‘guise’) and entertain people…
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Troyls – Cornish celebrations
From time to time around Cornwall, you might see posters advertising something called a troyl. Today, more often than not, the Cornish dialect word troyl is used instead of the Gaelic word ceilidh or the English barn dance if the music and dancing on the night is to be Cornish. Equally, from time to time,…