The Bagpipe Society

Traces of Ancient Mystery

The antiquarian, Davies Gilbert, described the folk carols he collected in Cornwall in the early 1800s as “Traces of Ancient Mystery”. This reflected the parallels he found with another of his interests, the Gwari Mir, the medieval Cornish mystery plays. He saw the carols as miniature dramas that echoed the narrative, rhetorical, and communal features of the Gwari Mir. The musical structure of these folk carols with their eight bar repeating phrases and tendency towards modality has also encouraged the idea that they originated in the medieval circular dance, the Carole. Indeed, “Korolliñ” and “karolli” are old terms for dance in Breton and Cornish, respectively.

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