In
1978 and 1979, Ann Griffiths worked in collaboration with French
musicologist André Schaefer on the ap Huw Manuscript of
1613. This famous Anglesey manuscript, still after almost four
hundred years not completely satisfactorily transcribed, begins
with 24 Clymau Cytgerdd ('Knots' of Harmony) which are followed
by pieces in a unique tablature and a cryptic table of ornaments,
with what the English poet Thomas Gray called 'Names enough to
choke you'. Taking her inspiration from the titles of Robert
ap Huw's pieces and reinterpreting his ornaments in twentieth-century
style, Ann Griffiths has created a Harp Suite which, Janus-like,
looks both backward to the past and forward to the future.
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