Roseland Troyl 24th April 2024 – celebrating the traditional music and dance.
A troyl was held at St Mawes Memorial Hall on 24th April 2024 during the Roseland Festival to celebrate the traditional music of the Roseland peninsula. Troyl is the Cornish name for an informal evening with spots for singers and step dance displays interspersed with songs and dances for all to join in. In the nineteenth century they were held in the fish cellars around the Cornish coast to celebrate the end of the pilchard season. Portscathos’s fish cellars are still there to be seen.
The evening featured the Bray Family, Martha Woods and Du Hag Owr. Martha and the Bray Family combined forces to play for dancing with Jowdy Davey, from Lowender, as caller. A new tune for the Roseland Furry dance written by Finley Bray was launched at the troyl together with the premier of Martha’s re-working of two traditional folk songs, “The Herring” and the “Oxen Ploughing”.
The Bray Family
Bray Family: Matt, Finley and Eva, hail from Padstow, play, dance and sing to Cornish and Celtic music. They love May Day and celebrating Cornish culture and naturally have been regulars to ‘Lowender Peran’ festival, drawing influence from a variety of visiting groups as well as homegrown musicians, singers, and dancers. In May 2023 Finley recorded an EP featuring self-penned tunes as well as music influenced from Padstow. https://finleybray.bandcamp.com
Martha Woods
Martha Wood: is a composer, songwriter multi-instrumentalist from Cornwall. Having grown up immersed in Cornish folk music and dance, she studied Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University with a year abroad at the University of Limerick. Martha draws inspiration from folk traditions across Britain and Ireland, combining them with more contemporary genres and has released a series of albums: https://marthawoods.bandcamp.com
See Herring Song for music score and lyrics
See Oxen Ploughing for music score and lyrics
Du Hag Owr
Du Hag Owr: Shanty group (the name translates as the Cornish colours ‘Black and Gold’) are based on the Roseland peninsula, Cornwall. With over decade of singing together they’ve enjoyed performing at shanty events including main stage at Falmouth shanty festival and many others across the area. They wrote and performed the soundtrack to ‘Oyster Gatherers Then and Now’, a film featured in the 2010 Cornwall Film Festival. But their greatest showcase came last June, when they were chosen to entertain presidents, prime ministers and a chancellor at a barbeque on the beach for the G7 in Carbis Bay! https://www.facebook.com/duhagowrshantymen .
The Roseland Furry Dance:Like many communities across Cornwall, the villages of the Roseland peninsula celebrated feast days and regattas with their own Furry Dance.
See Roseland Furry for instructions and music.
Dances for all to join: The Bray family joined forces with Martha Woods and caller Jowdy Davey.
Visit the Cornish National Music Archive YouTube channel for more videos of the troyl.
The Music of the Roseland Troyl was hosted as part of the Roseland Festival 2024.
See Also :
Music of the Roseland Home Page
The Music of the Roseland Project is a collaboration between the Roseland Music Society, the Gerrans and Porthscatho Old Cornwall Society, and the Cornish National Music Archive.
We are grateful for funding and support from FEAST which has made this project possible.