ABSTRACT
The progress of the Anglo-Norman settlers in Wales was far more sporadic than in England, but the gradual acquisition of lands and churches by Norman lords soon initiated wholesale restructuring of the indigenous church. The forms of continental monasticism, so prominent in England by the beginning of the twelfth century, came late to Wales. The clas foundations were never touched by the tenth-century Benedictine revival that had swept through England with profound effect on the patterns of liturgical observance. The writings of Gerald of Wales offer several vignettes of musical culture and ecclesiastical practice in medieval Wales. Two passages in Gerald's writing make specific mention of singing and may give some hint of the use of music within the Welsh church. The first is an informal description of the annual celebrations of ordinary folk at the church of St Eluned near Brecon. Gerald's second musical vignette is the well-known description of improvised part singing from the Descriptio.
