In 1959, Claudine Mazéas, a young woman passionate about Breton culture, travelled to Canihuel in the Côtes d’Armor to record Marie-Josèphe Bertrand, a singer with an exceptional repertoire who had been a clog maker before becoming a bistro owner. Among the songs she performed was the gwerz (song) of "Skolvan", a long sung tale whose verses can still be found almost word for word in a 12th-century Welsh manuscript. Claudine Mazéas was one of many devoted collectors who spent years preserving Brittany’s oral tradition. The collecting of songs and stories had already begun in the 1810s and 1820s, when scholars started searching for medieval laments. Among them was folklorist Paul Sébillot who collected hundreds of songs, particularly in Upper Brittany. This work formed part of a wider European movement dedicated to preserving popular oral traditions.
At the end of the 19th century, in the Quimperlé region, Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué collected Breton songs and brought them together in the Barzaz Breiz, a collection that remains a reference today. Meanwhile, François-Marie Luzel while exploring the Trégor region, relied on the help of an exceptional co-collector: Marc’harid Fulup, considered a true “phenomenon” of oral tradition. Although she could neither read nor write, she knew between 300 and 400 songs by heart. Most collectors wrote song lyrics down in in notebooks, and those who knew how also transcribed the music whenever possible.
An Extraordinary Machine
The arrival of the phonograph, the forerunner of modern recording equipment, transformed the collecting process. At the beginning of the 20th century, Marc’harid Fulup was recorded using this machine. It was also employed by the doctor Léon Azoulay at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition, where he recorded songs and stories in Breton and Gallo. These recordings are the oldest known examples of those languages.
A later version of the phonograph was used in the summer of 1939, by two researchers from the national museum of popular art and traditions, Claudie Marcel-Dubois and Jeanine Auboyer - together with linguist François Falc’hun, launched a major study of musical folklore in Lower Brittany. They interviewed 123 people across around twenty towns and villages in Morbihan and Finistère. Their work resulted in more than seven hours of recorded music, 437 photographs, 23 minutes of silent film, and hundreds of written archives.
Collecting Across Brittany
After the Second World War, and especially from the 1970s onwards, collecting gained new momentum with the revival of Breton culture. The spread of portable and reliable tape recorders made this work easier. Many young people began recording traditional songs, including Albert Poulain, who launched an extensive musical collecting project in Redon and the surrounding region from the Singer Erik Marchand, who died in 2025, also collected numerous dance songs from singer Manu Kerjean at his home. Founded in 1972, the association Dastum now preserves thousands of archives - including sound recordings, manuscripts, and photographs - linked to oral heritage. Many artists from the new generation of Breton music continue to draw inspiration from these collections.
Translation: Tilly O'Neill
