Breton Music - Expert Help Needed

Irish Flute
1

Every so often, I hear great Breton music played by “Irish” flute players/groups like Emer Mayock, Cran, Moher, John Skelton…to say nothing of great Irishmen like Jean Michel Veillon and Sylvain Barou. :smiley:
I need help from a Breton music expert or someone with experience in Breton music:
Can you post a brief description (or direct me to a web site) outlining the basics of Breton dance tunes like: an dro, hanter dro, laride, dans plinn, dans fisel (I hope these are types of “dance” tunes?). What are the basic characteristics, time, tempo, beat emphasis, etc, etc in each of these types of tunes?

thanks, Paul

2

Jean-Michel Veillon told me that with Breton music the best way to understand the different rhythms is to learn the dances. And despite the fact that I’m a terrible dancer, I agree with him. The music really makes much more sense when you understand the dance, and you’ll eventually be able to listen to a tune and tell what kind of dance it is based on the internal rhythm. At most of the festou-noz I’ve been to in Brittany, the band doesn’t even tell you what dance they’re doing, they just launch into a tune and people can figure out what dance it is based on the rhythm.

And yes, the tunes you listed are types of dances.

There’s a humorous but fairly useful introduction on youtube here (note that in the second segment they say “an dro and hanter dro” but only the an-dro is shown there, and many of these dances are not that common – the avant-deux dances are kind of like our contradances here in the States, and there’s one dance there that’s very much like the Gay Gordons from Scotland; I’ve never actually seen them myself in Brittany, but most of my time there has been spent around Vannes and the Presqu’Ile de Rhuys; there are lots of different regional dances throughout Brittany):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXSTxkqT1I&feature=PlayList&p=7E4997F3EA7C7C0A&index=0

Here’s a really nice an-dro, followed by a bal de rhuys, from a beautiful island in SW Brittany, Belle-Ile-en-Mer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsc1xtJVBo&NR=1

Watch the older dancers, they know what they’re doing.

For more detail, there’s a website that describes the different dances here, broken out by region:

http://dansal.gwalarn.org/pagedecadredansebretonne.html

For example, the an-dro and hanter-dro are from the southwest, around Vannes…here’s the page for the hanter-dro:

http://dansal.gwalarn.org/hanterdro.html

Pretty much without exception, Breton dances start out on the left foot.

If you don’t read French it’ll be a bit difficult to get through all this, but at least you can see the basic rhythms of the dance outlined here. This site is also great because it provides the common variations on each dance: the “tricot” is a sort of combination of an-dro and hanter-dro (you switch from one to the other during the dance) and the “klam” is a form of hanter-dro where you drop to your knees periodically in the tune when the musicians yell out “Klam!”

Some of the dances like the gavotte and plin have a “bal” portion that is slower and in a different rhythm: you start with the “call,” which is a slow warmup to get the dancers ready, and then you launch into the full-speed gavotte or plinn; after awhile you get to the bal and everyone is happy because they can slow down and catch their breath, but then you launch back into the gavotte or plinn.

You can see it here (minus the call at the beginning) with a gavotte:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0CZrnjqjE&feature=PlayList&p=7E4997F3EA7C7C0A&index=0

The bal begins around 1.45 into the video.

Note that most dancers conserve their energy and take small steps – this is so you can dance all night long and not get exhausted!

3

Hi Paul!

I am writing to vouch for what Brad said about the music making sense …

I had the great opportunity to meet Brad in early October and learned a couple of Breton dance tunes from him. As we went along, Brad kept saying the tunes made more sense when combined with the dance. After an hour or so, we met up with his wife who was to teach some dances. We combined what Brad had been teaching us with what his wife was teaching and LO! As the dancers stepped out - the tunes seemed to come to life.

OK - admittedly, Brad DID really LEAD everything, but the rest of tried our best!!!

And there is something else Brad mentioned…Breton tunes seem to go in one ear and right out the other!!!

So Brad…if you read this…is there a link to the written music for those tunes??


Thanks!
~Sue

4

Hi Sue,

Thanks – now, how much did I say I would pay you to say all that? :laughing: And you did just fine playing those tunes, by the way, it sounded great!

I have seen a few music books with Breton dance tunes written out, but I don’t know of any free online sources – there must be some, I’m just not aware of them. The word in French for sheet music is “partition” so if you do a Google search for “danses bretonnes” +“partitions” you’ll find links to a bunch of tune books that you can order online.

-Brad

5

Thanks Brad for spending the time explaining some of the facets of Breton music. The web site you mention
(http://dansal.gwalarn.org/pagedecadredansebretonne.html) is a fabulous resource.
cheers,
Paul

6

By sheer coincidence, I’ve just decided to sell off a four foot shelf of tunebooks, etc. One of them is Dave Shepherd’s Breton Dance and Tune Book, which probably has the definitive answer to your question, at least as far as is possible in english. It’s 50 or so letter-sized pages with the various dances and their steps are described, along with a generous sampling of tunes that go with each. If your curiousity runs as far as spending actual money, send me a PM. It appears to be ₤9 new. I’d sell mine for ten bucks Canadian.

7

Hi Paul,

I am by no mean an expert of Breton dance tunes and Breton dances; But by chance, I happen to play in a band that play mostly Breton music and that is related to a breton Dance group.

  • So, strictly concerning music, I can get you some music sheet from what we play if you are interested,
  • here is a link to a free partition site, that will give you a good overview (for possible cross references with Brad excellent urls) : http://breizhpartitions.free.fr/en/brittany_scores.php,
  • within a few weeks, I can get you an english translation of the most common dance technics (gavotte, plinn, andro, hanter dro, rond de Saint Vincent, ronds de Loudéac, ridées, pach pi, laridée, etc.).

There seems to be la whole bunch of VERY local variations in those dances, and you could spend your life trying to catch everything up…

Cheers,

Pascal.

PS : I am sure other chiffers much mlore acknoledged than me are from Brittany and will bring you the help needed on the subject.

8

Pascal.
Thank you for another great web site on Breton music. I would like an English translation of the most common dance techniques. Perhaps you could post it on this Board for other Chiffers who might be interested.
I’ll send you my email address by a Private Message so you can contact me about obtaining some of your band’s sheet music.
merci encore,
Paul

9

How about some sources for CD’s - music to listen to? I have all of Kornog’s available discs and some others - including a sort of tourist “Music of Brittany” thing.

thanks

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The most extensive source I know of for Breton CDs is Keltia Musique, in Quimper: http://www.keltiamusique.com/

A US source is cdRoots: http://www.cdroots.com/keltiamusique.shtml

As for which CDs to buy, I came across this book (Celtic Music: The Essential Listening Companion) at the local library: http://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Music-Essential-Listening-Companion/dp/0879306238
It has a very good chapter on Breton music (with CD recommendations) written by noted ethnomusicologist Stephen Winick.

11

Kornog is very good, you can also listen to Pennou Skoulm with Jean-Michel Veillon again or listen to Carré Manchot, one of the famous and oldest Fest Noz band of Bretagne, with Yannig Allory who is also a very good flute player.

Another source for breton music : http://www.coop-breizh.fr/ecouter-2.htm.

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Demat

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Speaking of the wars and Breton, the word “yes” in Breton is pronounced “yah” just like German “jah,” and during the occupation of France in the Second World War some of the native Breton speakers were apparently either mistaken for Germans or of conspiring with Germans. So that’s one of the reasons the language nearly died out; the bigger and earlier reason was the Revolution: in 1789 only half the people in France actually spoke any French; the country was a rich mosaic of cultures and languages. Napoleon pretty much put a stop to that. But it’s kind of amazing to think that French has been spoken in Québec longer than it has been in most of France, apart from the region around Paris!

Today, of course, kids in Brittany can go to schools where only Breton is spoken (we have a friend who teaches at one), although my sense is that Breton is still nowhere near as ubiquitous or as widely spoken in Brittany as Irish is in Ireland. I don’t think there’s an equivalent to Irelands TG4 in Brittany, for example.

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[quote="Diego Lolic says that Ross Daly, in “The Music of Brittany”]
…
Celtic music, in general, is essentially a modal musical tradition, a fact which reflects its very ancient origin. In some of the other Celtic traditions, elements of more contemporary scale structure and harmony are increasingly apparent. In Breton music, however, perhaps more than in any other music of the Celtic family, pre-classical modality is more pristinely preserved. Polyphony and chromatic progressions, two of the most important and distinctive characteristics of other more contemporary European musical idioms, are effectively excluded from Breton music.
…[/quote]

Yes, very nicely summed up.

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Diego, do you have a source citation or link to the piece you posted, in order to give proper credit? Thanks!

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If “ancient” means “pre-Baroque”. :slight_smile: Or as the author says, pre-classical. Still, a pretty recent terminus ante quem.

It’s always amusing that the popular imagination wants to see folk musics and traditions as “ancient”. The impulse goes back to Romantic period antiquarianism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and we’re still stuck with it. Not to really dispute the author’s basic description; I’m being pedantic. But arguably, European art music rests on the same continuity of Byzantine and Roman church music, and could claim to be equally “ancient”. But not nearly as cool as ye olde mystical Celts. :slight_smile:

Yes, modern centralized French policy toward minority languages (and regionalism in general) has been both harsh and effective via “active neglect”, hasn’t it? And with minor concessions, continues today, AFAIK.

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I’m far more likely to believe that the modes in Breton dance music are a matter of what it’s possible to get out of a Binioù kozh (high-pitched bagpipes) or Bombarde (howitzer), which are the instrument pair usually used to accompany Breton dances.

I didn’t understand why until I was a gig/party in Montreal which was a benefit for a well-loved local musician who’d died young. Various musicians played, but the last group were a more or less standard trad band lineup of fiddle, flute, guitar, bouzouki etc. At midnight, however, the sound guy who’d come with the rented PA Started taking his gear down. As far as he was concerned, the show was over, and that’s what his contract said. At the time, however, people had started breton dancing, and they didn’t want to stop (Montreal bars are open til 3 am) The band tried to carry on without the sound system, but they could barely be heard over the sound of the crowd of dancers. Suddenly, two guys came into the room playing biniou & bombarde, which they’d gone out to their cars to get. (the crowd was almost entirely trad musicians from various local scenes, so the fact that someone there had a bombarde in his trunk was as unlikely as it would seem.) They had no trouble at all being heard. The band hastily put away their instruments and joined the dancers.

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Not quite. To be truly pedantic one needs to be excessively exact and CORRECTLY so.
Even your quoting acknowledgement is inappropriate because you have not yet sourced whether Ross Daly did actually say what you are quoting him as saying. Contrast this to saying “Diego Lolic says that Ross Daly… wrote” which is different.

19

That “ye olde mystical …” comment strikes me as a cheap shot (smiley or not) and is kind of going to straw man stuff because Daly’s music and projects are far from fairyland fantasy.

European Classical music does indeed share the common history but took a radical turn structurally and in flavours especially from around the end of the Renaissance. Every conservative treatise on European Music will tell you that and you know it. Putting experts aside, it is audible to even an uneducated ear.

20

:laughing: Did that really just happen? :laughing:

But yeah, Brad’s comments and links are pretty true. I only had a brief exposure to Breton traditions while playing with a bagad among the Breton diaspora of Le Havre (second only to Paris for the largest Breton population outside of Brittany). I remember for a competition there was a proscribed terroir of some Ronds de Sautron. We were handed the partos and the band director showed us the dance steps. We didn’t win the contest but we did win best dance interpretation. The dancing went on and on at the subsequent fest noz.

Other music recommendations are Skolvan and Skeduz. I also came a cross a fun, youngish group called Spontus. To get to the heart of it I’d recommend some sonneurs couples and some kan ha diskan. I will second the recommnedation of Pennou Skoulm. It’s more familiar instrumentation for a less familiar tradition.