Research and Articles

A personal account of the remarkable revival of Cornish music and dance, and why it matters. By Neil Davey (Published in Cornish World)

The second millennium is still in its infancy, toddling around the garden between delights and dangers. The awed sense of place in history, which came with the turn of the millennium for some of us, complete with optimistic wonder at what the future might hold, has been replaced by … an awed sense of place in history, complete with disbelief and anger at the unnecessarily dangerous state of global affairs.

So where does my late great grandmother's concertina playing fit into all this global angst? and how important is it in the grand scheme of things?

In the mid 1970s, the traditional Cornish dance music scene was cosy, to say the least. If I wanted to sit down and have a Cornish music jam session, there weren't many people I could do it with. In fact there were three that I knew of, and they were my brothers Merv, Andy and Kyt!

When I say Cornish music, perhaps I should be more specific. I'm talking about music with its roots way back in our history, indigenous local music, the Cornish equivalent of say Peruvian pan pipe music, or Irish jigs and reels. Of course, 'Cornish music' can mean a lot else too. We have a wonderful brass and silver band scene, and harmony singing has always been strong, whether it be in male voice choirs, or a 'shout' down the pub.

In the 1970s my eldest brother Merv Davey had already been involved in bands singing in Cornish, such as Byrth Noweth - the first to sing in Cornish on Radio Cornwall - and Quylkyn Tew, but when he heard the traditional Celtic dance music of places like Ireland and Brittany, where a great revival in popularity was underway at the time, he was inspired to go in search of a Cornish equivalent of this dance music. He soon began to find it, through interviews with people who could remember it from their younger years, and by delving into museums and libraries.

Some of it he found very close to home, in our own family, for instance our auntie - Mrs. Elsie Mills - described to him how my grandfather Edward Veale used to dance a challenge dance called 'Lattapouch'. My grandfather himself could remember his mother, my great grandmother, Granny Clemens, playing the concertina for it when it was danced at a troyl - an informal party with dancing and music, and other entertainments - held in one of the fish cellars of Newquay harbour, to celebrate a catch coming in.

The rest of us Davey brothers were soon inspired too, and together formed the band Bucca, the first band to devote itself entirely to the promotion of Cornwall's traditional dance music. Bucca enjoyed a fair degree of success, spending each summer on the road around the other Celtic countries, and making frequent TV and radio appearances. In 1980 they signed to Plant Life Records for the release of their album 'An Tol yn Pedn an Telynor' - 'The Hole in the Harper's Head' - which was distributed in thirteen countries worldwide.

Although comparatively short-lived, Bucca proved to be a source of inspiration for many musicians who later took up playing Cornish dance music.
Meanwhile, a revival in the dancing itself was getting underway. Together Merv and his wife Alison Davey had continued researching these, collecting some dances intact, and other fragments which they used in reconstructions. They formed the first display dance group, Cam Kernewek, and, in 1979, the annual dance festival Lowender Peran. Lowender Peran built on the 'Pan Celtic' festival which had been organised the previous year by the late Betty Pitman, and went on to become a highlight in the calendar for Cornish musicians and dancers, and also for many visiting from the other Celtic countries. It is still very popular, and celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. Another very early addition to the dance movement was Ros Keltek, formed by Jenifer Lowe and Andy Davey, which has also kept going right up to the present day.

Since those early days there has been a steady growth in the number of people involved in the scene. Bands have been formed, split, mingled, mangled and merged, and at the last count I could think of at least forty bands or dance groups who have concentrated either entirely or predominantly on traditional Cornish material, of which perhaps twenty are still active. Many other groups have also included some Cornish traditional material in their repertoire. This is not bad for a comparatively young revival in a small country about the size of Luxembourg or Brunei - and which doesn't have control over its own local arts budget …yet!

Musically, there is something for everyone amongst all these bands, whether it be the communal fiddles of Bagas Crowd, the accordion driven big ceilidh band sound of Asteveryn, Pyba's historical recreations, Dalla's daring takes on the tradition, or Rick Williams' deep dub remixes of traditional tracks - from his own band Bagas Degol, Dalla, and others. There is singing for dancing too, known as Treiz ha Ganow, which uses traditional and new songs, in Cornish and English. It has something of the feel of Breton Can ha Diskan, but with more harmonising - as befits Cornish singers! One group featuring this is Kescana, and other examples can be found on Dalla's latest CD More Salt. There are fine young bands coming up too, such as Scoot, Pentorr and Aveladenn, all bringing their own fresh slant on things.

In the same way that Treiz ha Ganow singing could be seen as the beginnings of a bridge between Cornish Dance music and the singing tradition, bridges have also been built with parts of the brass and silver band community. The Crowders and Horners project, run by Cumpas, recruited brass/silver and reed players (The 'Horners'), and string players, especially fiddlers (The 'Crowders'), and brought them together to play for Noze Looan dance events at festivals across Cornwall. The project also produced a book called Hooch which will make some of the tunes in the popular tune book Fooch more accessible to transposing instruments.

The biggest recent development in terms of Cornish dancing itself has been the Noze Looan (literally 'Happy Night'). Hilary Coleman, Simon Lockley, Karen Brown, Frances Bennett, and myself, discovered sometime in the late 1990s that we had all been thinking along the same lines about a new way of using the traditional Cornish dances collected by Merv and Alison Davey. Inspired by the continuity, informality, and accessibility of the Breton Fest Noz, we decided to present a night of Cornish dancing in the same way. The name 'Noze Looan' was coined by Simon Lockley. The dances we chose were the simpler ones, which often also happened to be the oldest, such as the Furries and Serpents, so that there would be no need to stop to explain the dances to people because they could simply follow other dancers, and we could keep the music going more continuously. We also all contributed new dances using traditional steps, and simplified other existing dances to make 'Noze Looan-able' versions.

A Noze Looan is a bit like a tantric ceilidh, where less is more, and the emphasis is on getting a hypnotic momentum going. The idea proved to be just what many people were waiting for, and the Noze Looan 'movement' has since grown to the extent that there are currently around eight active Noze Looan bands.

Aside from the actual dancing of dances and the playing of the music, there has been a lot of other work going on behind the scenes throughout the revival, by way of research, organising events, providing resources, teaching, and so on. Several organisations have been set up to address particular aspects. The Cornish Dance Society (CDS) was founded in the mid 1990s to provide an umbrella for the growing number of dance groups. Amongst other things, CDS publishes instruction packs on the dances, and arranges events such as the annual Cornish dance competitions. Recently, CDS was instrumental in setting up the website www.an-daras.com, which aims to provide an online doorway to Cornish dance and music.

Another dance organisation, 2nd Wave, was set up more recently by Karen Brown, to provide: 'consultation, co-ordination & excellence in dance training for projects and productions'. Karen Brown has a long history in the Cornish dance movement, having, amongst many other things, formed the first Cornish youth dance group Omma Ny Moaz (later 'Otta nye Moaz') in the early 1990s. On the music side of things, Hilary Coleman and Frances Bennett formed Cumpas Ltd. in 1998, which has great success running Cornish music workshops in schools, and large community projects involving events at the main venues in Cornwall. In 2003 they attracted the first major funding for traditional Cornish music, from The Arts Council South West.

Over the last twenty or so years there have been quite a few books and other resources published on Cornish music or dance. Recently, some exciting contributions have been made by Mike O'Connor, who has unearthed many previously undiscovered Cornish tunes, from collections such as the tune book of John Giddy, a local fiddler in the mid 1700s. Mike's book Ilow Kernow, first published in 2000, is the definitive resource for anyone seeking a historical reference book. In 2002, Fooch - Favourite Cornish Session and Dance Tunes was published, and has proven hugely popular as a practical resource for people wishing simply to learn some of the best loved tunes as currently played.

Another very important development, both as a resource for people looking for Cornish music, and as an invaluable service for Cornish bands was the creation of Kesson Records by Kyt Le Nen-Davey. Kesson distributes Cornish music CDs to internet venders, major store chains, and independent high street shops around the world, and the accompanying website www.kesson.com is the ideal first port of call if you're interested in this music. At the first Dehwelans homecoming festival, in 2002, Kesson launched a compilation CD Mammyk Ker showcasing the best of a very healthy and diverse stable of bands, which gave a good idea of how far the revival had come by then.

The combined effect of all the developments, in the music, the dance, and behind the scenes, has been a steady raising in profile of Cornwall's traditional dance and music, both at home and abroad. At one time, Cornish musicians might not get a chance to meet up and play together from one year's Lowender Peran festival to the next. With time, however, this became less and less of an issue as the scene grew, and the number of chances to meet increased. Apart from there being more dances and sessions to go to because of the increase in numbers of musicians and dancers, Cornwall's traditions also started to be celebrated more widely in Cornwall anyway, as awareness of Cornwall's unique culture in general was raised. A Richer Vein, the debut album by the band Dalla, had caused a very gratifying stir when it was released in 2001. It was critically acclaimed in the international music press and elsewhere, and was generally considered to have 'stepped things up a notch or two' on the Cornish music front. Partly because of this, Dalla began to reach wider audiences who had not previously been tempted by Cornish music.

The popularity of the Noze Looan approach did the same for Cornish dancing. Both Dalla and Noze Looan dancing were also themselves propelled upwards by the dramatic shift in gear within Cumpas. Cornish traditional music and dance was now enjoying a much higher profile in all the major venues and festivals across Cornwall, such as The Eden Project, Carnglaze Caverns, The Hall for Cornwall, and Golowan Festival, and other agencies were also showing an increased interest in it. One example being Cornwall's world class theatre company Kneehigh, who worked with Karen Brown to incorporate traditional dance steps into one of their most successful shows ever - The Red Shoes.

The profile had already begun to be raised abroad much earlier in the 1990s, as Cornish musicians and dancers began to have more chance to travel further afield. Previously they had mostly been restricted to the stages of the smaller festivals in Cornwall's fellow Celtic countries, often on an amateur basis. Anao Atao broke new ground for Cornish bands by travelling to play at festivals in America, Japan, Canada, and Bratislava, amongst others, and many other musicians have forged links with Cornish 'Cousins' elsewhere. I myself have also been fortunate enough to spend a few years trotting the globe thoroughly as the Cornish ingredient in one of the top Celtic bands, Anam, introducing Cornish dance music, often for the first time, to audiences throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and America. I believe Anam's album Riptide also did its bit for raising the profile, by being the first CD featuring Cornish dance music to enter the top ten in the UK folk music charts! Dalla will be keeping up the travel trend as well in 2004 with two trips to America and more tours and festivals in mainland Europe.

So here we are, back with that toddling young millennium. The revival in Cornish music and dance is about twenty five or thirty years old, and a lot of people have put a lot of time and energy into helping it along. One thing the Cornish do better than most is push water uphill - our mining engineers invented the machines to do it! and at times over the last quarter century or so, some of the people involved in the revival may have been forgiven for thinking that they were continuing in this fine Cornish tradition. They need only stand back a little now though, to see just how much progress has really been made, and the revival is still relatively young.

So has it all been worth it? How important is it in the grand scheme of things? That a growing number of people are enjoying themselves is perhaps justification enough in itself, but I believe there are also more far reaching reasons why local culture such as this is important. One of them I believe is, put simplistically, that if we feel good about our own culture, wherever we come from, we feel more secure in our identity and sense of place, we are more able to tolerate other cultures, and less likely to feel threatened by them. On the other hand, cultural insecurity leads to intolerance or even fear of other cultures, and can of course have global implications. Traditional Cornish music and dance is only one aspect of our culture, but I think what matters is not whether you like every aspect of your culture, but that you simply know what it is, and where you stand in relation to it.

'I'm kicking up my boots, I'm going back to my roots'

'It's the roots that make the fruits.'

"Cornish music is a distinctive part of Cornish culture and as such has links with a wider Celtic heritage."

"Dig where you stand"

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