Notions which have gained currency in so much writing about the age of the ap Huw music swing between extremes of credulity and scepticism through the middle ground of guesswork. As this has well-nigh fatally confused the evidence, it has become imperative to place our efforts on a systematic basis, with a view to finding an identity, date and locality for its composers.
The sources to be considered include upwards of twenty manuscripts concerned with Cerdd Dannau (dating between 1537 and the nineteenth century) and also range widely over historical, literary, topographical, genealogical and other convergent data. Clear-cut results only occasionally emerge for individual composers, but it is possible to place them all in an overall historical framework and in a provisional chronological sequence.
The need to penetrate the cultural attitudes of the period is considered as a methodological pre-requisite for a full interpretation of the music; and the effort to view the ap Huw materials as part of a bygone Welsh musical whole (insofar as it is possible to grasp such as whole) is considered as a methodological pre-requisite for adequate comparison of its aspects with those of other musical traditions.
Mae syniadau sydd wedi dod i amlygrwydd mewn toreth o ysgrifennu ynglyn â chyfnod y gerddoriaeth ap Huw yn pendilio rhwng eithafion hygoeledd ac amheuaeth drwy dir canol dyfalu. Gan fod hyn wedi cymysgu'r dystiolaeth yn llwyr bron, daeth yn hanfodol sefydlu'n hymdrechion ar sail systematig, gyda golwg ar ganfod enw, dyddiad a lleoliad ar gyfer ei chyfansoddwyr. Mae'r ffynonellau i'w hystyried yn cynnwys dros ugain llawysgrif yn ymwneud â Cherdd Dannau (yn dyddio rhwng 1537 a'r bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg) a hefyd amrediad eang o bynciau hanesyddol, llenyddol, daearyddol, achyddol a data cydgyfeiriol arall. Dim ond yn achlysurol yr ymddengys canlyniadau diamwys ar gyfer cyfansoddwyr unigol, ond mae modd eu gosod i gyd mewn fframwaith hanesyddol cyffredinol ac mewn dilyniant cronolegol dros dro.
Ystyrir yr angen i dreiddio'n fethodolegol drwy ymagweddau diwylliannol y cyfnod yn angenrheidiol i sicrhau dehongliad llawn o'r gerddoriaeth; ac ystyrir bod yr ymdrech i edrych ar y deunyddiau ap Huw fel rhan o gyfanrwydd cerddorol Cymreig oes a fu (cyn belled ag y bo modd amgyffred cyfanrwydd o'r fath) yn hanfodol i gymharu eu hagweddau'n ddigonol â rhai traddodiadau cerddorol eraill.