• The Nation
• The Language
• The People
• Poetry
• Musical Heritage
• Penillion
• Folk Songs & Hymns
• Noson Lawen
• Choral Music
• Musical Instruments
• New and Old

Other Articles of Interest

• Llanelli Men's Voice Choir
• Welshfest 2001
• Llanelli Men's comes to Wymore
• National Eisteddfod

It's my happy duty to contribute something to this inaugural issue of The Hidden Note of the musical traditions of the country of Wales, which interestingly enough is a bit hidden itself.

It is said to be born Welsh is to be born privileged—not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but with poetry in your soul and music in your heart. Music provides the common ground and foremost identity for the people of this tiny country.

But first, a little something about the land once called Cambria.

The Nation
Wales or Cymru (pronounced cum-ree) is situated on the southwest of England. It has been part of the United Kingdom since the Act of Union 1536 and is often referred to as a "province of England," or, worse, mistaken for England itself. Wales is a distinct nation with a unique race of Celtic descendants boasting its own ancient customs and ancient tongue.

The Language
The Welsh language or Cymraeg (pronounced cum-ri-eg) is said to be "the language of heaven." It is a complex and beautiful language more closely related to Breton or Cornish as opposed to Irish or Scots Gaelic.

It is a source of national pride and identity viewed by some as the "wall" that separates this nation from England. The language suffered in the mid to late 20th century, but it is now making a comeback.

While only about 26% of 2.6 million Welsh speak their native language today, it is being taught in grade school and night classes are available for adults. Particularly in the north, you can hear Welsh spoken on the streets by young and old.

You will also find a resurgence of the native language in the music - whether ancient hymns, modern folk tunes or alternative punk.

The People
The people whom we think of as Welsh are actually some of the earliest Britons. The oldest Wales could be said to be most of the isle of Britain.

The first Welsh poems known were written in northern England or southern Scotland in the 6th century. (The current border between England and Wales has been fairly constant for the last one and a half thousand years.)

Poets and musicians of ancient Britain during the time of the Druids (1000 BC) were called bards. The primary function of a bard was that of the newspaper or television of his day, but they recited their messages in metered verse and sometimes set them to music. (And we thought "edu-tainment" was a 20th century concept!)

Poetry
The Bardic Tradition flourishes in Wales today. The oldest cultural festival in Europe is the National Eisteddfod held alternately in North and south Wales each year. The Eisteddfod was established in the 18th century and features arts competitions of native singing, dancing, playing, acting and poetry.

The highest recognition awarded to anyone by Wales has nothing to do with sports, medicine, science, or celebrity—it is for poetry. There are strict rules of writing and only pieces written in Welsh qualify. The ceremony of "The Chairing of the Bard" is the highlight of the Eisteddfod. To receive one of these chairs is an unparalleled honor.

Musical Heritage
The Welsh people for centuries have been renowned for their love of singing, particularly part-singing. As the Irish take credit for inventing rhyme, the Welsh take credit for inventing harmony.

Thomas Beecham, one-time music master to the Royal Household once wrote a treatise observing only three nations in the world who naturally sang in four-part harmony; the Zulus of South Africa, the Ukrainians of Central Europe, and the Welsh. It is a unique sound and a unique part of Welsh culture.

Geraint Wilkes, a classically trained tenor and teacher from Aberystwyth and now living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, says, "Welsh music has three distinct ingredients - it is emotional, spiritual and theatrical."

Certainly, Welsh music does have spirit and a life all its own. Even when your mind doesn't understand the words being sung, the vocals become part of the tapestry of instrumentation. It's very moving.

Much traditional Welsh music is written in a minor key, which I think is a commonality among oppressed people groups. The lyrics are quite often melancholy. Most love songs tell the story of unrequited devotion or someone winding up dead. As Wilkes has observed, "A Welshman is never so happy as when he is sad."

Whether at home, in the pub or on the playing field - the Welsh find occasion to sing. In fact, there is at least one live recording entitled Gwlad! Gwlad!: The Sound of Welsh Rugby.

It is interesting to note that the Welsh national anthem was chosen spontaneously by the crowd at the first unofficial world Rugby championship in 1905. Wales played New Zealand. The Welsh team began to sing and the crowd joined them: "Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl I mi," (The land of my fathers, the land of my choice…) and so it is their anthem today.

Penillion
A unique Welsh music form is penillion singing. It can be sung solo or by a group and is usually accompanied by the harp. While the harp plays one melody, the vocalist's challenge is to improvise another separate melody entwined about the music of the instrument. When done well, the effect is gorgeous… and everyone ends at the same time!

Folk Songs & Hymns
Wales has a rich store of folk tune melodies. You have probably been singing one for years in Deck The Halls, which is an old Welsh air. Another tune is Ar Hyd Y Nos (All Through the Night). We recognize most of these that have survived into the 21st century as hymn tunes. For instance, the above-mentioned music is also set to Go My Children with My Blessing.

Revivals of Christian faith exploded in Wales in the 18th, 19th & early 20th century. Whole villages were converted. Shops would close at midday for prayer meetings and the local constable was put out of work. Out of these revivals came a steady stream of hymnody.

As the fires of revival began to dim, proponents sought to catch the ears of the straying by setting sacred poetry to popular folk melodies. Lili y Dyffrynoedd (The Lily of the Valley) is one such example.

William Williams, Pantycelyn (1717-1791) was one of the more prolific hymn writers of his day. He can be compared to John & Charles Wesley for his contribution to the body of sacred music still in use.

Cwym Rhondda is a joyous and majestic melody written by John Hughes, Dowlais (1873-1932). It is best known by its lyrics, both the English and Welsh having been written by William Williams. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah can be called the 2nd national anthem of Wales. It's heard as frequently in pubs and on playing fields as in the chapels.

The Gamanfa Ganu or Hymn Sing is an event enjoyed by fans of sacred music in Wales and North America. The sessions I've attended in the US last two to three hours. If you're not hoarse when you leave, you just haven't sung with hwyl (pronounced "hoyle"; tough to translate into English, but basically "energetic, spirited fervor") Hymns are sung in both English and Welsh, often with phonetic lyrics provided.

Noson Lawen
Welsh for "merry evening," the noson lawen is comparable to the Gaelic ceili (ceilidh). A dance is called a tym path. One singer commented, "Only the Welsh would come up with a name like 'happy evening' to get together and sing sad songs."

In spite of their penchant for melancholia, the noson lawen is a great deal of fun. There is always singing, sing-a-longs, poetry and (as is customary with any public performance in Wales) the national anthem.

Choral Music
While there are female choirs and mixed choirs, the Welsh male voice choir captures the essence of Welsh choral music. This fine tradition is a source of pride and identity for many Welsh towns.

While Americans usually associate a choir with a local church or school, in Wales every sizeable place of business or village usually has some sort of chorus or band. One of the top brass bands in the country is Parc & Dare, also known as the National Fuel Distributors Band.

There is nothing to match the sound created by a Welsh voice choir. Geraint Wilkes says, "In all my travels I have only found one other country that could produce a choir to match a Welsh male choir and that is Russia."

The voices and harmony are powerful. They are typically accompanied by piano or organ and create an impassioned wall of sound. They perform contemporary show tunes, Italian opera, and original works as well as Welsh music. The Wales Tourist Board has printed a lengthy guide to villages with exceptional choirs. These choirs range in size from 20 to 120.

Some of the better known ones include Llanelli Male Voice, Treorci Male Voice, Pendyrus Male Voice and Morriston Orpheus Choir.

Musical Instruments
Welsh players seem to have extraordinary innate instrumental ability, too. Gerald of Wales, a cleric and historian writing in the late 12th century writes in his Description of Wales, "When they play their instruments they charm and delight the ear with the sweetness of their music. They play quickly and in subtle harmony. Their fingering is so rapid that they produce this harmony out of discord… The Welsh play three instruments, the harp, the pipe and the crwth (Welsh bowed harp)."

To Gerald's list, we add the pibgorn (or "hornpipe") and the crouth - a bagpipe with one drone.

Wales is the only country that can boast an unbroken tradition of harping. While Wales shares a number of instruments with its Celtic cousins, one unique instrument is the triple harp. It didn't originate in Wales, but it took root and flourished here surviving long after it died out in Europe.

Robin Huw Bowen of Aberystwyth in Mid Wales (who also plays with Crasdant) is almost single-handedly championing the cause of the Welsh triple harp. Robin's disc Old Hearth, is simple and elegant. It evokes much the same feelings for me as does George Winston's December.

As the name implies, the harp has 3 rows of strings and according to Bowen: "It takes 3 times longer to tune and is 3 times more difficult to play. You really have to be Welsh and a genius to play it."

New & Old
Traditional music is enjoying a resurgence in Wales, but variety abounds. There are a number of artists who are building on that tradition and in the words of one, "challenging the tradition."

A young band based in Cardiff is Carreg Lafar. They do for Welsh traditional music what the soundtrack for Riverdance does for Irish traditional music. Their energy and musicianship is superb! I recommend their disc Hyn (This) for a collection of upbeat and danceable tunes.

Modern folk singer, political activist Dafydd Iwan has given voice to Welsh nationalism for more than 35 years. If you want to hear a stirring anthem, look for Yma O Hyd (We Are Still Here) written by Iwan and featured on the disc Ac Ar Log.

If you really enjoy music from the fringes, check out alternative bands like Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Supergrass, Stereophonics, and Manic Street Preachers.

You may recognize the names of some Wales natives as part of the American music scene; Dave Edwards, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones are contemporary Welsh imports.

Most recently, it's classical prodigy Charlotte Church. Bryn Terfel is a world class bass/baritone (not to mention being the highest paid, too).

Catherine Zeta Jones has done a great deal to highten the Welsh profile in popular American culture because of her public ties to hearth and home.

Whether you have ancestral connection to Wales or not, if you are passionate about music - you can certainly find common ground with the musical offerings of this nation.

After all, in Wales - everybody sings!