Annotation:Melody of Cynwyd (The)

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MELODY OF CYNWYD, THE (Mwynen Cynwyd). AKA and see "Dargason," "Sedany." Welsh, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Howe): ABB (Mellor). Edward Jones (1784) explains: "Cynwyd was a man’s name, and Cynwydion was the name of the Clan and Land: from which the Village of Cywyd in Merionethshire derives its name." The greater portion of this melody appears in London publisher John Playford's English Dancing Master of 1650 (1st ed.) under the title "Dargason," which is thought to have later evolved into the jig "Irish Washerwoman (1)." The resemblance is most pronounced in the first strain; the second strains are quite different.

The Welsh version was printed in 1784 in Edward Jones's Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards. Elias Howe notes that it is "An old Welsh melody, 1588", although what source he references is unknown (although it is perhaps "Dargason" in Ravenscroft's Pammelia of 1609). See Annotation:Irish Washerwoman (1) for further information.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 158. Jones (The Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards), 1784; p. 129. Mellor (Welsh Dance Tunes), 1935; pp. 14-15.

Recorded sources:

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