How to Include Cornish Music and Dance at Your Wedding

Ask a Cornish crowd to sing Trelawny at the end of a wedding and you will see the room change. Arms linked, words half-remembered, everyone suddenly louder than they expected to be. That is the real appeal of Cornish music and dance at a wedding: it gives your guests something to join in with rather than something to watch. You can use it in careful doses, or let it carry the whole evening.

Start with the shape of your day

You do not need to book a band for nine hours. Most weddings in Cornwall use live music in three separate slots, and each one asks something different of the players.

Ceremony

A solo fiddle, a harp, a whistle player or a singer with guitar works beautifully here. Book roughly twenty minutes of playing as guests arrive, then three or four short pieces: the processional, something during the signing of the register, and the recessional. In a small church or a licensed room, one unamplified instrument is plenty. Check the music rules with your registrar or officiant before you set your heart on anything, and put your choices in writing for them.

Drinks reception

This is where a duo earns its fee. Fiddle and accordion, or fiddle and bouzouki, playing tune sets for an hour or two while people talk and drift about. Cornish tunes suit this well; they loop neatly and do not demand attention. Outside, wind and chatter will swallow an unamplified instrument, so ask about light amplification or tuck the players into a sheltered corner.

Evening

The main band. Two sets of forty-five minutes to an hour, with a smaller line-up or a playlist in between, is the usual shape. A ceilidh or nos lowen band can carry the entire evening if your guests are willing to be led.

How to find and book Cornish musicians

Start with your venue. Barns, village halls and farm marquees in Cornwall host a lot of local bands, and the staff usually keep a list. Beyond that, go where the music is played rather than where it is advertised: pub sessions in Falmouth, Penzance, Bodmin and Liskeard, the Cornwall Folk Festival in Wadebridge, Lowender Peran at Perranporth in October. The Cornish National Music Archive online is useful for finding tunes and the people who play them.

A year ahead is not too early for a good band on a Saturday in July or August, and popular ceilidh bands are often booked long before that. Midweek and out-of-season dates are far easier. Ask for a written agreement covering deposit, balance, timings and what happens if a player falls ill.

• Do you play Cornish repertoire — Camborne Hill, The Boscastle Breakdown, the Helston Furry Dance?
• How many players are coming, and how much floor space and power do you need?
• Do you bring your own PA, and who operates it through the evening?
• Can you provide a caller, or music between sets?
• Will you learn a particular tune for a processional or a first dance?
• What is the fee, travel cost and deposit, and what is your cancellation policy?
• Do you need a meal, a break, and somewhere to change?

Ceilidh, nos lowen and filling the floor

A ceilidh band comes with a caller who teaches each dance from the microphone: two minutes of instruction, then the music starts. Nobody needs to have danced before. A nos lowen — Cornish for a happy night — works on the same principle but looser, with the band leading simple circle, line and six-hand dances, sometimes called, sometimes shown. It is the quickest way to get relatives from four different sides of the family dancing together.

Two things make the difference. The floor: smooth and flat. Grass, gravel and uneven flagstones are hard on feet and awkward for turning, so hire a proper dance floor if you are in a marquee. And the size: a six-hand reel needs six people, and you want eight or ten sets going at once, so allow more room than feels necessary. Isolate the caller's microphone from the instruments, or the instructions vanish under the tune.

Bringing the Cornish language into your day

Kernewek can appear at almost any level of commitment, from a single phrase to a full reading.

• A reading or blessing in Cornish, with a translation printed in the order of service.
• A bilingual reading: one verse in Cornish, then the same verse in English.
• A few phrases in a speech — my a'th kar (I love you), meur ras (thank you), one and all from Onen hag Oll.
• Place names and the Cornish flag on invitations, table names or a welcome sign.

The legally binding words of a marriage in England must be spoken in English, so a Cornish reading or blessing sits alongside the legal ceremony rather than replacing any part of it. Confirm the details with your registrar. Cornish spellings also vary between the different spelling systems, so if you want the words to be right — and read well aloud — ask a speaker. Kesva an Taves Kernewek and Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek can point you towards someone willing to read at a wedding.

Small practicalities that save the day

Cornish venues come with Cornish conditions: wind, salt air, a long walk from the car park to a field. Ask the band how long they need to set up, since an hour plus a soundcheck is normal, and check whether your venue has a sound limiter, as some licensed buildings do. Give the band a written running order, and give them one named person on the day who is not you. For a beach or clifftop ceremony, check tide times, access and parking, and make sure the wet-weather plan includes the musicians.

Make one moment the centre, and let the rest follow

For most couples, one Cornish element matters more than all the rest. A fiddle leading the procession. A nos lowen first dance. Trelawny sung at the end of the night with everybody standing. Choose that, tell the band exactly what you want, and keep everything around it simple. Feed them, pay them properly, and get the timings onto paper. After that, your only job is to be on the floor when the first tune starts.

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