              Copyright
Helen Forder
2004
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The
National Music of Wales ... continued xxxxxxxxxxxxxpage14
John
Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia). From Y Cymmrodor, 1878 |
| Dr. Crotch, in his
eulogium on Welsh music, specially mentions
military music only, whereas I think he would
have been sure to have alluded to our plaintive
music, had he been better acquainted with such
melodies as "Davydd y Garreg Wen"
(David of the White Rock), or "The Dying
Bard to his Harp", "Morva Rhuddlan" (The Plain of Rhuddlan),
"Torriad y Dydd" (The Dawn of Day), and
many others of the kind. |
 |
| I consider
their great fondness for the minor key to be a
very marked characteristic of the Welsh people.
Some writers have attributed this peculiarity to
the influence of the circumstances under which
their music was composed; but, inasmuch as the
same tendency exists in the present day, after
centuries of peace and prosperity, I am inclined
to lay it to the strength of the emotional
feelings of the Welsh as a people; for I have
frequently witnessed their being so touched by
the performance of one of their own plaintive
melodies, as to shed a tear of delight, - even in
the presence of others, of a different
nationality, who did not appear to have been
affected in the same degree. Nor are our pastoral
melodies less worthy of admiration, - their
varied characteristics being equally striking. |
| The
Eisteddvodau have afforded the greatest
encouragement to the study of music and poetry;
and the contests on those occasions have been the
means of recognising real merit, and of
suppressing mediocrity. The result being, that
music occupies a much more elevated position in
the Principality at the present time than it has
ever done at any former period. In proof of this,
it is only necessary to call attention to the
wonderful progress made in choral singing alone,
and to the great number of choral societies
formed throughout the Principality. It would
hardly be credited that, at an Eisteddvod held at
Abergavenny on Easter Monday, 1874, as many as
ten choirs, each numbering, on an average,
between four and five hundred - making a total of
between four and five thousand voices - competed
for a prize of a hundred pounds; and, as one of
the adjudicators upon the accasion, I have no
hesitation in stating their singing was in no way
inferior to that of the choir which came up to
London in 1872 and successfully competed for the
prize of a thousand pounds at the Crystal Palace.
I believe I am correct in saying that the ten
choirs belonged to almost the immediate
neighbourhood of Abergavenny; in every case
within a radius of twenty miles. |
| What other
country in Europe, of the extent of Wales, can
boast of as much activity in the cause of music?
The consequence is, that our choirs carry
everything before them; our young vocalists carry
off the scholarships at the principal institution
of this country, and perhaps of Europe, - the
Royal Academy of Music; our musicians are
beginning to take their musical degrees at the
great Universities of the Empire; we have
established a University of our own in the
Principality, and musical education has been
included in its programme. |
| We are
thus, I trust, proving ourselves worthy
descendants of the bards and minstrels from whom
we have inherited THE NATIONAL MUSIC OF WALES. |
| The foregoing paper was
read by Mr. Thomas before the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion on the 13th of March, 1878, in
the Music Hall of the Royal Academy. |
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