Kan Jack as played in a set with Pencarrow at the Benbow Cornish Session Dec 2022
Notes
Robert Morton Nance, the Cornish Language scholar and revivalists wrote the Cledry plays during the early part of the 20th Century. Some of these plays were published in a collection under that title in 1956, others remain in manuscript form in the Royal Institution of Cornwall Library (Morton Nance box 4 ). Morton Nance does not identify sources for his music and whilst he clearly wrote some, others can be cross-referenced to oral tradition. In his own Words from the preface of The Cledry Plays, these plays were ” aimed at carrying on the West-Penwith tradition of turing local folk tales into plays for Christmas acting. What they took over from these guise-dance drolls, as they were called, was their love of the local speech and their readiness to break here and there into rhyme or song” : and of the music ”
the simple airs do not ask for accompaniement or for trained voices to do them justice. They are only a slight extension of the music that West-Penwith voices will put ionto the dialogue.”
Morton Nance, R Cledry Plays, Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, Penzance, 1956:p40
Dalleth, Canow Fleghes, (Audio Cassette)1984
See Cornish Session Tunes Project
For more about Cornish Session Tunes
Racca: Cornish Tunes for Cornish Sessions Project 1995-97
Fooch 1 & 2 Favourite Cornish Session and Dance Tunes – Neil Davey