Until the 17th century a

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise ...

would compose a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

knowing it was going to be sung. Poetry was called music of the tongue and string music was called music of the string ("

Cerdd Dant ' (, or ') is the art of vocal improvisation over a given melody in Welsh musical tradition. It is an important competition in . The singer or (small) choir sings a counter melody over a harp melody. History is a unique tradition of singing l ...

"). The Welsh word "cerdd" can mean either poetry or music. When bardic music died out the knowledge of how the music was set also died out.
Welsh Traditional Music
' by Phyllis Kinney, University of Wales Press, 2011,

References

External links

Music of the Robert ap Huw Manuscript
on Bragod website
Medieval Welsh Bardic Music
Interpreting the Robert ap Huw MS. by William Taylor Welsh music history Welsh literature Welsh folk music Medieval Wales {{Wales-hist-stub