Welsh Journals

repetition was used. It was used a great deal. It is common for short segments of text to recur within a piece quite freely; but usually repetition is rendered structural by one of several formulas. It is convenient to consider these first in relation to whole passages, and then in relation to shorter segments of text. Passages are frequently repeated. Indeed, it is rare for any passage not to be repeated, either immediately or later in a piece. It is clear that this ingredient of the music was thought to be sufficiently signifi- cant to warrant being measured or controlled rather precisely, for the degree and nature of the repetition in individual pieces are the factors that give rise to the prime classification of pieces as kaniad, gosteg, and so on.2 It emerges that within each class the pieces comply with a particular format regarding repetition. These formats depend upon the division of sections (which are usually numbered) into two kinds of passage: kaingk and diwedd.3 In kaingk passages it is usual to include an immediate restatement of what is most often a single passage, and then never to return to it without at least some variation or change being made. In diwedd pas- sages, which are placed towards the end of sections after a kaingk, it is usual not to have an immediate restatement, but for the passage to recur at the end of subsequent sections, so that the repetition is de- ferred. Sometimes the diwedd of the first section provides the ending of all the sections of a piece. In its simplest form then, the scheme is AAB, CCB, and so on.4 Bias toward either immediate or deferred repetition in a piece will be determined by the ratio of the length of the kaingk to the diwedd, and this is what is controlled by the form. In gosteg pieces, the kaingk forms two thirds and the diwedd one third of the section, and the same diwedd recurs throughout the piece. In the kaniad pieces, the kaingk usually forms more than two thirds of the section, the actual proportion is variable, and the diwedd is often not maintained unchanged throughout.5 In the kwlwm kytgerdd pieces the kaingk forms the whole of the section, there being no diwedd. In the profiad pieces, there is no formal division into sections, and what little repetition there is is immediate. The very short kaingk pieces and 'Y Ddigan y Droell' should probably be viewed as comprising just one section each, and perhaps they may have been repeated several times. Some pieces are uncharacteristic of their class. 'Kaniad y Gwyn Bibydd' has no diwedd and no directions for the restatement of sec- tions, which may indicate that it was imported into the repertory from a piping genre, as its title might suggest. 'Profiad Fforchog Ifan ab y Go' begins with numbered sections which are not restated. This system of regulating formulaic repetition is potentially very wide-ranging, and the pieces in the text are evidence that the