              Copyright
Helen Forder
2004
|
The
National Music of Wales ... continued xxxxxxxxxxxxxpage13
John
Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia). From Y Cymmrodor, 1878 |
| In the double-action
harp, perfected by Erard, each note has its flat,
natural and sharp, which is not the case with any
other stringed instrument; and this enables the
modern harpist to produce those beautiful
enharmonic effects which are peculiar to the
instrument. |
 |
| Another
remarkable advantage has been attained by this
invention - the reduction in the number of
strings to one row; which enables the performer
not only to keep the instrument in better tune,
but to use a thicker string, and thus attain a
quality of tone, which, for mellowness and
richness, may be advantageously compared with
that of any other instrument in existence. |
| To return
to the Welsh triple harp. The increased resources
attained by the invention of that instrument, as
being so far in advance of any other instrument
of its kind, up to that period, gave a powerful
impetus to the progress of music in the
Principality; and may go far to account for the
superior beauty, in an artistic point of view, of
the national music of Wales over that of any
other country. This fact is admitted by the most
eminent writers on music; and, lest I should be
considered too partial, as a Welshman, with
regard to the music of my native country, I
venture to quote Dr. Crotch, a distinguished
composer and learned historian, and, for some
time, Professor of music in the University of
Oxford, and Principal of the Royal Academy of
Music. In the first volume of his Specimens
of Various Styles of Music, referred to in
his course of lectures, he writes as follows:- |
"British and
Welsh music may be considered as one, since
the original British music was, with the
inhabitants, driven into Wales. It must be
owned, that the regular measure and diatonic
scale of the Welsh music is more congenial to
the English taste in general, and appears at
first more natural to experienced musicians
than those of the Irish and Scotch. Welsh
music not only solicits an accompaniment;
but, being chiefly composed for the harp, is
usually found with one; and, indeed, in harp
tunes, there are often solo passages for the
bass as well as for the treble. It often
resembles the scientific music of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and
there is, I believe, no probability that this
degree of refinement was an introduction of
later times."
|
| Further on,
he continues:- |
"The military
music of the Welsh seems superior to that of
any other nation. In the German marches, the
models of the English, most of the passages
are noisy, interspersed with others that are
trifling, and even vulgar. In those of France
also there is much noise, together with
chromatic and other scientific passages. The
Scotch Highland marches, called Ports,
are wild warbles, which might (and, indeed,
upon many occasions did, in a remarkable
degree) inspire courage, but which could not
answer the purpose of regulating the steps.
But in the Welsh marches, 'The March of the
Men of Harlech', 'The March of the Men of
Glamorgan', and also a tune called 'Come to
Battle', there is not too much noise, nor is
there vulgarity nor yet misplaced science.
They have a sufficiency of rhythm without its
injuring the dignified character of the
whole, which, to use the words of the poet,
is -
".
. . Such as rais'd
To height of noblest temper heroes of old
Arming to battle; and, instead of rage,
Deliberate valour breath'd."
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Par.
Lost, Book 1, line 551.
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