Blogs

The Music of Sir Karl Jenkins

Monday, January 20, 2020 at 7:00 PM - Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall

DCINY presents the 20th Anniversary of 'The Armed Man, A Mass For Peace' by Sir Karl Jenkins. Maestro Jonathan Griffith leads the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International in The Armed Man with film as well as the North American Premiere of Jenkins’ latest work, Miserere: Songs of Mercy and Redemption.

Performers

Jonathan Griffith, DCINY Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Sir Karl Jenkins, CBE, DCINY Composer-in-Residence
Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International

Program

Jenkins: The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace 
Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the work.
Miserere: Songs of Mercy and Redemption

Ticket Link

North American Premiere Tickets $20-$100! On Sale Now!  Visit CarnegieHall.org or call 212-247-7800 Box Office: 57th Street and Seventh Avenue

https://www.carnegiehall.org/en/calendar/2020/01/20/the-music-of-sir-karl-jenkins-0700pm

Welsh writer Dave Lewis has just released Scratching The Surface , his twentieth book, a kick-ass poetry collection that leaps off the page and thumps you in the chest. From Celtic mythology, to the African bush and 'The Matrix', through the lives of Ho Chi Minh, Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, an abused porn star, a transgender cousin, to ex-lovers and close family this collection ebbs and flows as mesmerically as a river on its journey to the sea.

"The poems are sharp, clear, and confident. He has a clarity only a real poet possesses." - Brian Patten

"Dave Lewis’s latest collection ‘Scratching The Surface’ is an engaging and diverse range of poems. It begins with the long, often rhythmic ‘Rivers’, which gifts the lines with a sort of onomatopoeic authority. It’s almost a metaphor for what follows, a series of well-crafted poems driven by theme and form. There are start of line rhymes (You and I), prose verse (A Dream of Gawain), end of line rhyme (Christmas Dad) and every combination between. The subjects are varied, but this confident poet succeeds in melding them into a coherent and rewarding collection." - David J Costello

Dave Lewis is an award-winning writer, poet and photographer who runs the International Welsh Poetry Competition, the Writers of Wales database and publishing company Publish & Print.

To buy his latest work just visit his website – www.david-lewis.co.uk or go to Dave’s Amazon page here - https://amzn.to/2pnTkmd

AmeriCymru: Care to introduce your new book - Dafydd ap Gwilym's Wales - Poems and Places for our readers?

John: Cymru Dafydd ap Gwilym / Dafydd ap Gwilym’s Wales is a collection of 35 poems by one of the greatest Welsh poets. The original Welsh texts are presented with facing translations in English, along with a bilingual introduction, with notes to explain unfamiliar names and words, a short essay on Dafydd’s life and poetry, and an even shorter introduction to the complex ‘strict metres’ in which Dafydd composed his poems. A unique feature of this book are the 70 photos by Anthony Griffiths showing places that Dafydd mentions in the poems. If you do not live in Wales or can not travel over much of the countryside – as Dafydd himself did – these photos give a wonderful visual sense of the land in which he lived.

AmeriCymru: Dafydd ap Gwilym is "regarded as being one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages." How would you describe his importance in the context of Welsh and medieval European literature?

John: The ancient Welsh tradition of court poetry under royal patronage was, in effect, eliminated after the deaths of the last ruling Welsh princes, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and his brother Dafydd, in 1282 and 1283 during their disastrous wars against the English king, Edward I. The royal and noble patrons of the court poets were killed in battle, executed, or, at best, deprived of their lands and wealth, while their wives and daughters were exiled to nunneries in distant parts of England. After a dark period of grief, the poets turned for support to the less prominent Welsh families who had become the intermediary officials who simultaneously administered the newly imposed English laws while they did their best to protect the Welsh people from the worst extremes of oppression. Thus, the practice of praise poetry continued, but on a reduced scale.

Dafydd ap Gwilym was born sometime in the early fourteenth century, and he himself tells us that he learned much about poetry from his uncle, Llywelyn ap Gwilym ap Rhys, constable and bailiff of the castle at Newcastle Emlyn. As poetry reasserted itself, albeit with shifting functions and purposes, Dafydd and a few other young poets began to turn towards new themes. Dafydd soon took the lead, especially as a love poet. Love poetry had been rare in Welsh tradition, though it was growing popular in the courts of France and England. Dafydd took love as his theme and adopted it to Welsh metres, creating a style that is unlike French and English courtly poetry. He and his fellow poets molded the cywydd to their new voices, embedding it in the complex set of rules known as cynghanedd (literally, ‘a singing together; harmony’). They did not invent cynghanedd, but they refined it, codified it, and made it an inextricable part of their verse -- poetry in which sound is as important as sense.

Dafydd was a master of the traditional forms of praise and religious poetry, as attested by 25 or so surviving poems. But he took the cywydd to new heights with about 120 poems that, for the most part, explore the joys and sorrows, frustration, pain, and hope of love. He casts himself in the role of the lover, especially one who is, more often than not, rejected by the object of his love, or who is prevented from reaching her because of such impediments as the weather, geography, furniture in the dark, outright rejection, or even the fact that she is married. Through this essentially comic persona, however, Dafydd expresses and celebrates the various aspects of love and the complexities of personal relationships. At the same time, with his detailed, charming and perceptive observations on the birds, animals, trees, rivers, hills and valleys of Wales, he reveals an intimate engagament with and love for the world around him. And he is equally perceptive about human feelings and foibles, often expressed with a sardonic wit at his own expense. Dafydd’s verse may not have been known very far beyond the borders of Wales, but his substantial body of innovative poetry shows him to be the equal of his more widely recognized contemporaries: in France, Guillaume de Lorris (whose famous Romance of the Rose he may have known); in Italy, Boccaccio and Petrarch; and in England, the somewhat younger Geoffrey Chaucer.

John: As a more general addendum to my comments above, I would say that not only was Dafydd an important voice in revitalizing Welsh poetry after a period of severe cultural stress, he was a central figure in the expansion of the popularity of the cywydd, not only for love poetry, but for other purposes, as well. His cywydd to his patron, Ifor Hael, thanking him for a pair of gloves is the earliest-known Welsh poem of thanks, a practice that spread rapidly over the next two centuries. And Dafydd and his friends composed elegies to each other (even before they died!), demonstrating that the cywydd was also suitable for expressions of grief and mourning.

Dafydd’s superiority was recognized by other poets in his own time. Gruffudd Gryg says, “I am his disciple, he taught me,” and calls him “the hawk of chief poets.” Madog Benfras calls him “the peacock of poetry,” “the nightingale of Dyfed,” and “a good teacher of poets, more exceptional / than anyone who ever lived.”

AmeriCymru: Do you think that Dafydd's poetry is sufficiently read, understood and appreciated in Wales today?

John: Unfortunately, poetry in general seems not to be as widely read as it used to be, even in Wales, where not long ago teenagers decorated their rooms with posters of middle-aged men and women, their contemporary poet-heroes. Nevertheless, it is notable that Dafydd ap Gwilym is still recognized in Wales, at least by name, after 650 years! A small handful of his comic poems, such as Merched Llabadarn “The Girls of Llanbadarn” and Trafferth mewn Tafarn “Trouble at an Inn” are fairly well known, but he is not what you might call widely read these days. To be fair, his poetry is not easy to read – though I hasten to add that it amply repays the effort. And even reading his verse in translation can be enlightening as well as entertaining.

Personally, I think it is no less important for an educated Welsh person (Welsh speaker or not) to know the poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym than it is for English speakers to be familiar to some extent with Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, or Donne. 

AmeriCymru: You are an expert in medieval Welsh. Care to tell us a little about the ways the language has changed/evolved since that period?

John: With a bit of study and practice, a dedicated, fluent Welsh speaker can read the Middle Welsh prose of The Mabinogi and other early tales. There are, of course, many words that are no longer in use, so editor’s notes and a good dictionary may be necessary. The experience, I like to think, is not unlike an English speaker today learning to read Chaucer. Early Welsh poetry is more difficult for a number of technical reasons, but such is the nature of poetry. To outline changes in the Welsh language over the centuries would take more time and space than is available here, so I will limit myself to some very general thoughts. 

Every language is always changing, and Welsh is no exception. There are many today who lament theadoption, albeit inevitable,  of English words into Welsh conversation and writing, but Welsh persists even though English has been slipping into the language since the 9th century, if not earlier; e.g., punt “pound” (9c.), cusan “kiss” (13c.),  sur “sour” (13c.), hosan “stocking, hose” (13c.), cist “chest” (13c.).  Dafydd ap Gwilym himself often included English and French words in his poetry. Here are a few words of English origin that first appear in Dafydd’s poetry:  apêl “(a legal) appeal”, baban “baby”, bostio “to boast”, cloc “clock”, cobler “cobbler”, dwbl “double”, gown “gown”, het “hat”, lwc “luck”, paement “pavement”, proses “process”, sadler “saddler”, siampl “sample, example”. 

However, much greater social and cultural changes have affected the Welsh language during the past 150 years than in the five preceding centuries. In the mid-to-late 19th century most of Wales was monoglot Welsh speaking, much as it was in Dafydd’s day. But English government policy and the institution of compulsory education in English reduced the proportion of Welsh speakers overall to less than 25% during the course of the 20th century. The protests and activism of the 1950s and ’60s eventually achieved official governmental recognition for the language. Mudiad Meithrin, the Nursery (Schools) Movement begun in the 1970s was the inspiration for the establishment of Welsh medium schools throughout Wales, and today the study of Welsh is required in many schools. Nevertheless, the percentage of Welsh speakers continues to fluctuate around 19-22%, and the language remains in crisis. Official use of the language and the ability to receive an education through the medium of Welsh should at least slow down the decline, and with luck, determination, and effort it could even be reversed. The pressures from a powerful dominant culture, however, are great, so it is hard to avoid the feeling that the future of the language is precarious at best.

AmeriCymru: In your 'Legends & Landscapes of Wales' series you have produced new translations of the most important Welsh legends and 'foundation texts' ( 'Tales of Arthur' , 'The Mabinogi' , 'Companion Tales to the Mabinogi'). What can you tell us about this series and where can readers buy the books online?

John: The three volumes that you mention (published by Gomer Press), contain translations of all eleven tales included under the mistaken title “Mabinogion” (a term I generally do not use). The first volume contains the Four Branches of The Mabinogi, the jewel in the crown of early Welsh literature, a work that everyone who comes from or feels an attachment to Wales should read. Companion Tales to The Mabinogi presents four wonderfully eccentric tales, especially “How Culhwch Got Olwen,” the earliest Arthurian tale and perhaps the most exuberant story you will ever come across, along with “The Dream of Maxen Wledig,” “The Story of Lludd and Llefelys,” and “The Dream of Rhonabwy.” Tales of Arthur gives you three tales of heroes who became important figures in the international tales of Arthur and his knights: Peredur, Owain, and Geraint. Each of these books is illustrated with about 60 photographs by Anthony Griffiths. 

A strong impetus for studying these tales for many years, and especially for presenting them anew to English readers, has been my belief that they are all serious, sophisticated works of literature that deal with timeless themes of considerable importance. Far from being stories for children, The Mabinogi, for instance, draws on its mythological underpinnings to examine unflinchingly the complexities of right and wrong, of friendship, marriage, war, and the treatment (and mistreatment) of women.

These books, plus our fourth volume, Englynion y Beddau / The Stanzas of the Graves, are available on the usual websites (though sometimes at highly inflated prices). I recommend that you order them from your local independent bookstore – or, especially if you would like a signed copy, directly from me at https://sites.google.com/site/themabinogi/contactinformation . 
AmeriCymru: What's next for John K. Bollard? Any new titles in the works?

John: There is no lack of projects on the front, middle, and back burners in my study, several of them in the realm of medieval Welsh prose and poetry. Whether there is to be a sixth collaboration between Bollard and Griffiths… well, we’ll see. 

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

John: Just a brief reminder from Dafydd ap Gwilym:

Cerdd a bair yn llawenach Hen ac ieuanc, claf ac iach.

“Poetry makes happier both old and young, sick and hale.”

More on Daffydd Ap Gwilym  Wikipedia (Cymraeg)   Wikipedia (Saesneg)

Acclaimed experimental music-maker Meilir has today announced the release of his remarkable new single. “It Begins” is available from the 8th of November 2019 via Gwdihŵ Records at all DSPs and streaming services. Produced by Charlie Francis (R.E.M,The High Llamas, Sweet Baboo) at his Loft Studio in Cardiff, “It Begins” heralds Meilir’s eagerly anticipated debut album, 'IN TUNE', due at long last in March 2020.

“’It Begins’ is about starting again,” says Meilir, “a new beginning implementing the things that I've learned in life and moving forwards. My records are very personal, one of the reasons they take so long for me to complete I think. There are themes on 'IN TUNE' that carry from my first two records; I suppose it's like a sound track to my life in a way. Some of the parts that made up the demos for this record are at least eight years old; it's been good to take a little longer over the process but it will be nice to finally complete them.”

Meilir – who earlier this year supported The Joy Formidable on their sold out European tour – is marking “It Begins” with a series of upcoming U.K. live dates, including Wrexham’s Un Deg Un Art Space (November 1st), Tom Robinson’s Fresh On The Net Live at Liverpool’s Handyman Pub (November 2nd), Cardiff’s The Moon (November 3 rd), and Chester’s Telford's Warehouse (November 15th). Additional dates will be announced.

Meilir Tomos is one of contemporary music’s most audacious new artists, melding expert songcraft with a fearless lyrical approach and wildly eclectic sonic sensibility. Born and raised in Flintshire, North Wales, he first made waves in his youth as a classically trained pianist and vocalist. Despite his early success, Meilir grew frustrated with the classical world’s artistic limitations, yearning instead to create something altogether his own. He co-founded cult Cardiff combo Manchuko, making their live debut with a nationally broadcast appearance on the Welsh-language free-to-air television channel, S4C.

Still, Meilir continued to feel creatively constrained and in 2009 began crafting his own unique music, creating innovative soundscapes with an idiosyncratic blend  of piano, electric guitar, voice and assorted synthesizers with such unlikely instrumentation as a thumb piano, an antique typewriter, wine glasses, even a tray full of gravel. A series of critically acclaimed singles and EPs followed, including 2009’s BYDD WYCH, 2012’s CELLAR SONGS, and the 2014 single, “Arabella,” all available now via Meilir’s Bandcamp HERE. “It Begins” follows the  2018 single, “Glasshouse,” featured on Killing Moon Records’ influential NEW MOONS VOL. X compilation, available for streaming and download HERE.

LIVE TOUR NOVEMBER 2019

01.11 Wrecsam / Wrexham - Un Deg Un Art Space

02.11 Lerpwl / Liverpool - Handymans BBC 6 Music 'Fresh On The Net' Live

03.11 Caerdydd / Cardiff - The Moon Club

15.11 Caer / Chester - Telford's Warehouse

CONNECT WITH MEILIR

TWITTER
 
FACEBOOK
 
BANDCAMP

SOUNDCLOUD

VOICES FROM WALES – THIRTY FOUR OF FIFTY-TWO, AUNTY MAGS - PART TWO

Margaret Lee is 89 years old, lives in Newcastle Emlyn but to her core is a Carmarthen girl, St Peter’s girl born in Priory Street.

Her recall of her young life growing up in Carmarthen and her knowledge of families is legendary and unsurpassable. She is one in a million, as they say.

Here’s part two of the video when she sits with Andy, her first cousin’s son and browses through the Carmarthen Facebook page, giving a glimpse into the social history of the town and her family.

To his friends in the 14 th century Dafydd ap Gwilym was paun cerdd, eos Dyfed, and penceirddwalch ‘the peacock of poetry’, ‘the nightingale of Dyfed’, and ‘the hawk of chief poets’. More than 650 years later he is still considered by many to be the finest Welsh poet ever. He is a delightful, at times hilarious, poet who explores the emotional complexities of love, especially unrequited love, with a self-mocking style that teaches us more than he seems, at first, to be saying. To say he loved nature is an understatement. He loved the world in all kinds of weather, which he also loved to complain about. He loved birds and trees and rivers. He loved the golden-haired Morfudd, perhaps for years even after she was married. He loved black- haired Dyddgu even though she seems to have been above his station in life. He loved to flirt with noble women and barmaids alike. And he continues to articulate for us the ubiquitous joys, doubts, and pains of love that most of us secretly harbor within ourselves.

This book includes the Welsh texts of 35 poems, accompanied by facing translations into English, an introduction in both Welsh and English, with explanatory notes, an afterword about Dafydd, and a brief introduction to Welsh metrics. The book is sumptuously illustrated by Anthony Griffiths with 70 evocative photographs of places that Dafydd himself knew and loved.

from the Preface by Dafydd Johnston, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies:

“As one who has spent his academic career working on the poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym, it is a rare pleasure for me to come across an entirely new way of looking at the subject, but I must say that this book has indeed made me see the poems with fresh eyes.... This collection provides a splendid introduction to the poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym.”

Copies are available in bookstores in Wales and from the publisher, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, at

https://carreg-gwalch.cymru/ .

In the US, signed copies are available from the author at

https://sites.google.com/site/themabinogi/home

Also by Bollard and Griffiths

The Mabinogi: Legend and Landscape of Wales (Gomer Press, 2006)

Companion Tales to The Mabinogi (Gomer Press, 2007)

Tales of Arthur (Gomer Press, 2010)

Englynion y Beddau / The Stanzas of the Graves (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2015)

In this video, Llywelyn travels to Wales in 2018 on a Kingdom of Wales diplomatic passport to issue a challenge to the UK after the UK Cabinet Office acquiesced (1) on the fact that Llywelyn is the true King of Britons.

The UK was unable to charge Llywelyn with fraud or having a fake passport because it is an established fact (manifesta probatione non indigent) that he is the de jure sovereign of Wales. By placing himself at risk Llywelyn was able to extract a declaratory recognition of sovereignty (2) from the UK. Any other person would have been charged with a crime for traveling on a self issued passport. The UK did not want him to have a trial, as a trial would reveal a lack of jurisdiction and expose the fact that the UK is only an acting government and not the true sovereign government of Wales.

Under international law, a government in exile has the authority to perform all normal acts of state. Including the issuing of identifications, passports, and creating treaties and alliances with other governments. 

The paramount take away from this video is that the United Kingdom is not the sovereign government of Wales. Their presence in Wales is an occupation under international law (3).  The Kingdom of Wales exists in present day, entitled to all of the signs and symbols of sovereignty and independence. 

Cymru am byth!
_________________________________________________________________

(1) "Delay by an individual claimant in the presentation of a claim has at times been held to bar the right of a state to present the claim subsequently as a valid one in international law. The grounds for the refusal to allow claims under these circumstances have been variously expressed. At times the disallowance is merely stated in terms of the claimant's non-action or laches, and at other times in terms of prescription or of a limitation on international claims.”
Marjorie M. Whiteman, Damages in International Law 236 (1937)

(2) “The declaratory doctrine of recognition can be stated in simple terms. A State exists as a subject of international law-as a subject of international rights and duties-as soon as it "exists" as a fact, that is, as soon as it fulfills the conditions of statehood as laid down in international law. Recognition merely declares the existence of that fact. These propositions are regarded by the adherents of the declaratory view as self-evident.”p. 423
H. LAUTERPACHT, “Recognition of States in the International Law”, “Yale Law Journal”, Volume 53, Issue 3, Article 1,  (1944)

(3) “Occupatio bellica, or belligerent occupation, is “quintessentially a temporary state of fact arising when an invader achieves military control of a territory and administers it on a provisional basis, but has no legal entitlement to exercise the rights of the absent sovereign.” Nehal Bhuta, The Antinomies of Transformative Occupation, 16 Eur. J. Int’l L. 721, 725 (2005)” 
See  Melissa Patterson, “Who’s Got the Title”, Harvard International Law Journal, Volume 47, Number 2, Summer 2006

Cardiff based aggro-Glam band, unleash their stunning debut single ‘Cherrytight’ this November, a debut statement from a band that are starting to stand out in the Welsh music scene. Produced by Tom Rees (Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard) during the blistering summer of 2019 ‘Cherrytight’ lights the touch paper with thudding baselines, bombastic drums, caustic gyrating guitars and vocals that drip with attitude and sexuality. The track explodes into an insatiable chorus that wraps itself around your heart and won’t let go. Comparisons to the throbbing roar of early Hole, and the rawness of L7 with an outstanding, storming outro. TELGATE have a duty to start riots in 6” platforms. They embody a fierce challenge on societal norms along with music which is unapologetically queer, loud and brutally honest; with ‘Cherrytight’ they make an unmissable introductory offering.

“Cherrytight is a metaphor for the backlash and social reaction to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The song is a poetic discussion of how the crisis which grieved the LGBTQ community was twisted to promote fear-mongering of homosexual and bisexual people and laid blame on our community. The lyrics relate to the excessive marginalisation which came from the discriminative reactions that pushed the queer community into the shadows. Amongst the catchy bassline and powerful flange is a protest for those queer lives who died in the shadows and those who are emerging from them today.” 

- Casper James, vocals & lyrics

Working with the artist developers of the Forté Project in 2019, TELGATE have been quickly developing a reputation in South Wales over recent months with a series of riotous shows across the region and the band have now started branching out to shake venues and festivals across the UK. They stand apart from the typical local guitar bands with their dramatic performances, their androgynous and glamourous looks and their incendiary rock and roll sound.  TELGATE’s work takes influences from 60s psychedelic, 1970s glam rock, post-punk of the ‘80s and riot grrrl of the ‘90s. Their music is wrapped in the hungry imaginations and outspoken personas of TELGATE. These androgynous young musicians, each one with a defined sense of style and appreciation of music’s rich tapestry, are here to play with perceptions of gender, sexuality and what music can be. They craft blistering righteous anthems for eccentrics and outcasts. Paint your lips red and prepare to fall in lust with the queerest side of rock and roll.

FFO: Jefferson Airplane, Bikini Kill, Hole, L7

Band members:

Casper James - vocals & lyrics

Chris Norton - guitar

Jay J. Sweeney - bass

Tom Cove - drums

TELGATE perform at Swn Festival this weekend, downstairs at Clwb Ifor Bach on the 19th of October at 8.30pm. 

“Cherrytight” is released 22nd November worldwide