The Barzaz Breiz ( "The Plaints of Brittany", Barz refers to "barde" and Breiz means "Brittany") is the collection of Breton folk tales, legends and music collected by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué and published in 1839. Hersart grew up in the manor of Plessix in Nizon, near Pont-Aven, half Breton himself. He made a collection of popular songs collected from oral tradition, but was criticised by a later generation of Breton cultural nationalists as having invented a great deal, for he was also half French aristocrat. His rediscovered notebooks have confirmed the authenticity of his finds. Traditional coat of arms This article is about the historical duchy and French province, as well as the cultural area of Brittany. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

In this book, La Villemarqué reported the score (chorus line) of the songs associated to the texts. It was one of the first attempt to collect and print Breton traditional music, except religious hymns.

Until his publication the "matter of Brittany" was known only from its translation into French romances of the 13th and 14th centuries, in which much of the culture was also transformed to suit Gallic hearers.

The collection achieved a wide distribution, as the Romantic generation that "discovered" the Basque language was beginning to be curious about all the submerged cultures of Europe and the pagan survivals just under the surface of folk Catholicism. The Barzaz Breiz brought Breton folk culture for the first time into European awareness. One of the oldest of the collected songs was the legend of Ys. Romance or romantic can refer to: Romance (genre) - a style of Medieval narrative fiction. ... Basque may refer to: The Basque language. ... Flight of King Gradlon, by E. V. Luminais, 1884 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper) Ys (also spelled Is in Breton) is a mythical city built in the Douarnenez bay in Brittany by Gradlon, King of Cornouaille for his daughter, Dahut. ...

See also Folk music Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ...

External links

• [1]
• Introduction to Breton music