triban
un tro yn festri hermon
fe gawsom hyfryd noson
waeth atom daeth y pibydd mwyn
i'n swyno a'i alawon
©gwen jones


llyfyr taliesin
wyf bard ac wyf telynawr
wyf pibyd ac wyf crythawr
i seith ugein cerdawr

i am poet and harper
i am piper and crowther
to a hundred and forty musicians


difr oedd gweld llanciau cadw a'u pibau cyrn tan ei ceseiliau... yn hel gwarthegau tan chwibanu mwynen mai a meillionen
william morris, dulas, mon


peniarth 20 (c.1330)
tri ryw brifgerd ysyd, nyt amgen: kerd dant, kerd vegin, a cherd dauawt.
teir prifgerd tant ysyd, nyt amgen: kerd grwth, kerd delyn, a cherd timpan.
teir prifgerd megin ysyd, nyt amgen: organ, a phibeu, a cherd y got.
teir prifgerd tauawt ysyd: prydu, a dachanu, a chanu gan delyn.

there are three main crafts, namely: the craft of the string, the craft of wind, and the craft of the tongue.
there are three main types of string music, namely: crwth music, harp music, and timpan music.
there are three main types of wind music, namely: organ, and pipes , and bagpipe music.
there are three main crafts of the tongue: making poetry, and reciting, and singing it with the harp


mabsantau, neithioirau, gwylnosau, &c, were their red-letter days, and the rude merrimaking of the village green the pivot of all that was worth living for in a mundane existence. i do not remember much about the gwylmabsant and the gwylnos - I came a quarter of a century too late for those wonderful orgies - but I remember the neithior with its all-day and all-night rollicking fun. we did not have the crwth, but we had the fiddle, and occasionally the harp, or a home-made degenerate sort of pibgorn. i myself am a tolerable player on the simplified bibgorn alas the pibgyrn are all gone today and I doubt whether there is one left of the old shepherd players.
william merdith morris, cwm gwaun, cwm rhondda


telyneg - planhigyn,
lili wen fach
wyt gynghanedd gudd
yn stafell oer y gaeaf.
cwpanau croeso
ar riniog cam ceiliog.
dagrau tystiolaeth y gwanwyn,
sy'n gywely i'r eira.
dawnsio wnei
fel pibau pêr calan hen
a dau wynepryd ianws.
y cyfriniwr yn crynhoi
mewn swp o wynder
obaith am yr yfory
nas gwyddom amdano.
a dderfydd y cof ohonot
cyn i fflam fy llygaid egwan
bylu ar aelwyd fy henaint.
©ann rhys


what is known as the horse wedding took place in 1852. there was all the mirth and jollity of bygone days. but one feature was missing, that appealed to the ear as well as the eye; where old edward of gwern, y pebydd, who, mounted upon his white steed and pouring forth the wild music of the bagpipe, had headed many a wedding party in their half frantic gallop over hill and vale
theophilus jones, carnhuanawc