Crwth

A Crwth is an ancient stringed instrument with it’s roots in early Anglo-Celtic culture, a predecessor of the modern guitar it was played by traveling musicians across Europe. My surname, Crowther, is derived from these musical storytellers who unlike me, had a fairly high social status. That’s because they were an influential alternative source of information from that of the Church.

While both the Church and Crwth players used storytelling, music and performance to get their message across, the tone was very different between the two, the Church used authority and consistency, Crwth players were the entertainers, using more emotion through music, rhyme, drama and comedy to tell stories of battles and affairs of court.

They became influential because of their popularity, the English word Crowd is derived from the large gatherings that resulted from a Crwth player arriving in a town with the latest ‘entertainment’ news. Information has always been power, the Church distributed theirs through scripture as they controlled the production of books. Before the invention of the printing press, books were expensive to produce, they took many man hours to produce but with monasteries across Europe, they had access to a dedicated workforce. Books ensured the distribution of a consistent message, where as word of mouth can get skewed to the priorities of the storyteller, where they are and the mood they’re in at the time the stories being retold.