cerdd dant
Cerdd dant is a traditional Welsh form of vocal music in which a singer improvises a counter-melody against a harp playing a familiar tune.
The voice and harp weave independent lines that harmonize without doubling each other.
The practice requires considerable skill, as the singer must create a new melody in real time while the harpist plays the established one.
- counter-melodySecondary melodic line
- harpPlucked orchestral strings
- stanzasUnits of grouped lines
- poetic meterRhythmic structure of verse
- declamationForceful, theatrical speaking
descant · musical phrasing · folk song · counterpoint · rhyming couplets · chord progression · Welsh · accompaniment · verse · bardic · traditional · improvisation · singing · folk · harmony · vocal · ornament · poetry
- Welsh Musicmale voice choirs, Tom Jones, Bonnie Tyler, Duffy, male voice choir
- Welsh Literaturecourt poetry, triads, historical tales, heroic tales, religious verse
musical structure
cerdd dantmonophony
Unaccompanied single melody
a cappella · chant · plainchant · Gregorian chant · recitative