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An Interview With Helen Forder, Author of ''High Hats And Harps''
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"According to some, Lady Llanover was the best friend Wales ever had!"
AmeriCymru spoke to Helen Forder, author of ''High Hats And Harps'', a new book on the life and times of Lady Llanover, a 19th century champion of the Welsh harp and Welsh culture in general.
Buy ''High Hats And Harps'' here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Helen and many thanks for your recent book ''High Hats And Harps''. Care to introduce the subject of the book, Lady Llanover, for our readers?
Helen: According to some, Lady Llanover was the best friend Wales ever had! She was born Augusta Waddington, 6th and last child, all daughters, of Benjamin Waddington and Georgina Mary Anne (née Port). Although English, Benjamin and Georgina had come to live in Wales (Llanover, near Abergavenny, MON.) where Augusta was born on 21st March 1802. Only two of her sisters, Frances and Emilia, had survived beyond infancy, and Emilia later died a young woman, not long after she had married. By this time Frances had married and moved abroad, leaving only Augusta living with her parents.
In 1823 Augusta married Benjamin Hall (III), the son of a family living at nearby Abercarn. They were devoted to each other and shared a love of Wales, its people and its traditions. Throughout their lives they used their position and wealth to champion Welsh culture.
Their social status rose gradually, Benjamin being created a baronet in 1838, and then raised to the peerage in 1859, becoming Lord Llanover of Llanover and Abercarn.
Sadly, Benjamin died in 1867, but Augusta continued the campaign to preserve the Welsh culture and traditions throughout the long years of widowhood. She died in 1896, in her 94th year.
Helen: Although unknown to many, Lady Llanover’s name has been familiar to me all my life thanks to my mother’s stories of her mother and grandfather. Her mother, Elizabeth Ann Williams, Nanny to us, was a member of Lady Llanover’s band of harpists and Mum would show us a photograph of Nanny, sitting at her triple harp while telling us of the time she won ‘the eisteddfod’ playing the instrument. Her grandfather was Lady Llanover’s under-agent.
AmeriCymru: How important was Lady Llanover''s contribution to the preservation and popularisation of the Welsh harp?
Helen: Lady Llanover learned to play the harp, having lessons from Elias Parish-Alvars, but it is thought that her interest in the ‘Welsh’ triple-stringed harp was aroused in 1826 when she attended the Brecon Eisteddfod where she heard John Jones play the instrument so beautifully. Later, John Jones became the Llanover family harper, after the building of Llys Llanover was completed. The position of family harper was maintained for the rest of Lady Llanover’s life.
AmeriCymru: Lady Llanover was often in dispute with another well known harpist from the period, John Thomas. Care to elaborate?
Helen: At the age of twelve John Thomas won the chief prize of a triple harp at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod of 1838. He attracted the attention of Lady Ada Lovelace, Byron’s daughter, who helped him financially to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he more or less abandoned the triple harp, which was played on the left shoulder and, changing shoulders, he learned to play the pedal harp, which is played on the right. A very able student, John found fame at home and abroad with his playing and his compositions. Lady Llanover encouraged him, but when she began her campaign to save the triple harp, he found he could not support her wholeheartedly, as he saw the benefits of the pedal harp and the limitations of the triple.
Lady Llanover was angry with him, seemingly offended that he did not share her enthusiasm for promoting the triple harp, but he regretted the tension between them, saying that this had risen mainly from his ‘inability to view matters connected with [his] artistic pursuits in the same light as herself.’ However, he never forgot her kindness towards him at the start of his career.
Undoubtedly their relationship became strained, but in her nineties Lady Llanover, while in London, attended a Welsh concert arranged by John Thomas, when ‘twenty harps played by ladies in white’ were heard. Doubtless they were pedal harps. Perhaps more has been made of their ‘bitter quarrel’ than was true!
John Thomas had not completely abandoned the triple harp. At the Swansea Eisteddfod of 1863 it was announced that he had secured sufficient money from people such as Lady Llanover, Maria Jane Williams and the Dowager Duchess of Dunraven to establish a triple harp scholarship for ten- to eighteen-year-olds.
AmeriCymru: What was her greatest achievement and what in your opinion can we learn from Lady Llanover''s example?
Helen: Some years ago one might have been justified in thinking that in spite of her life-long efforts Lady Llanover had fought a losing battle. When I was a schoolgirl our music teacher told me there was no such instrument as a triple harp! I knew there was – we had a photograph of ‘Nanny’ with hers, but one did not argue with teachers in those days!
In spite of my grandmother having spent some years, from the age of twelve, living under the ‘Llanover influence’ I never heard her speak Welsh, although Welsh was her family’s first language; and although my mother was brought up as a Welsh speaker she never spoke to us in the language, and we children were actively discouraged from taking Welsh lessons in school. At least she kept the name Lady Llanover and knowledge of the triple harp alive with her stories of her mother and her grandfather and their time at Llanover.
As far as the women are concerned, Lady Llanover did not ‘invent’ the Welsh costume, as many people think, but she did create a Llanover ‘livery’, which is what today’s national costume seems to be based upon. While picturesque, the Welsh costume is not practical today, so it is hardly surprising that it is only worn at eisteddfodau and other Welsh cultural events. However, when it comes to the costume for men, one only has to look at what her family harpers had to wear to realise that costume design was not one of her talents!
Welsh folk dances, however, continue today, with Folk Dance Societies keeping some of the old dances, which were danced at Llanover, alive, for example, Rhif Wyth and the Llanover Reel.
One has the impression here in Wales that there is a resurgence of interest in Welsh culture. Many people are attending language classes, and the harp is a very popular instrument. Thanks to people like Llio Rhydderch ( www.lliorhydderch.com ) and Robin Huw Bowen ( www.teires.com ) the triple harp is alive and well! The first triple harp ‘choir’ since 1913 was formed a few years ago, and they have produced a wonderful CD of toe-tapping music. Consisting of five fine triple harpers, they are carrying on the tradition.
So, in spite of many years in the wilderness, Lady Llanover’s efforts seem to be bearing fruit. Long may it continue. Oes y byd i’r iaith Gymraeg.
AmeriCymru: Whats next for Helen Forder?
Helen: What Next? My website - http://augustaladyllanover.coffeecup.com – is very much in need of updating, so I must spend time on that! Also, I have two harps, a guitar, a piano and a recorder, all rarely played! It is time I settled down to some serious practice. Maybe I will begin again with the harp, not a Welsh triple-stringed harp I am sorry to say, but I know many Welsh tunes to practise.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Helen: Lady Llanover’s mother had been brought up by her great-aunt, Mrs Patrick Delany, who had said, ‘I like, and love, and dislike with all my might’. Georgina exhorted her daughters, ‘Whatever you do, do it with all your might’. This was what Lady Llanover did.
To all my Americymru friends who are trying to learn the old language, ‘Daliwch ati’. – keep at it. The language is well worth saving from extinction, as is the triple harp, and other aspects of Welsh culture.
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Photo by Johnny Nigma
AmeriCymru: Hi Eris and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Please tell us a little about your new single 'So Many Nights".
Eris: Hi thanks for the interview! The new single So Many Nights is the first of 3 singles produced with Charlie Hoskyns that I will be releasing through a label I have set up called Original Human Records. These single have been developed from lofi demos into full scale productions with high tv/radio specs with a view to getting the sounds of little eris out to a wider audience.
The So Many Nights single is a harmless but loaded love song based on a true experience of being hurt by love. Its nice that the single has resulted in turning a difficult time of my life into positive life experience whereby I have rewarded by people enjoying the song and the video. A bad experience in love has created a positive result for myself! We had a lot of fun making the music video for the single. I set my imagination free and wrote a ridiculous script with 11 scenes and lots of outfits and locations and props. We succeeded in manifesting the idea into reality through collaboration with local artists. My friends have been very supportive particularly textile artist Elen Mai Wyn jones who found us the editor in LA and helped with a lot of the styling for the video. My boyfriend James has also been very supportive, as a professional animator he did all the storyboards and the single artwork for me. As a first release the single has brought a lot of people together, there were around 20 people involved in making the video for it and they all worked on the project voluntarily. The single is out now and available as a digital download, the video has also been released online and can be found on the main video streaming sites.
AmeriCymru: What is your musical background? How did you become a performer?
Eris: Throughout my life music has always been there. I remember examining a speaker at the age of two to try and work out where the multiple voices were coming from when my parents played their records, I was very sensitive to harmonies. My mother also used to play guitar and sing to me as a baby Songs like Are you going to Scarborough Fayre. I was born the daughter of a striking miner and music by The Specials and The Police filled our house I remember the stillness in the air, stone floors and the sounds of ska music. I remember seeing Queen on a tiny tv set playing Radio Gaga live at Wembley. I was always intrigued by music and very conscious of my interaction with it. I went to a welsh medium school which had a strong identity for drama, arts and culture, In Wales we have Eisteddfods in schools where pupils are encouraged to compete in singing and recitals. There was a lot of singing and harmonies that I enjoyed. I would often sing at home with my sister duets we had learnt at school, we even sung a song from school in my aunties wedding! In school I also learnt the violin, harp and piano to a basic level which gave me a loose understanding of music that I applied to other instruments in later years. As a teenager in Aberdare I would go with my friends on the weekends to clubs in Swansea and Cardiff and got into house music. Before that we also used to like going to raves in Porthcawl called Southern Exposure where they played all sorts of underground dance music but mainly happy hardcore! I was very inspired and awakened by these new worlds beyond the dreariness of life in Aberdare. I left home at 16 and moved to Swanse where I made friends with a group of people who were also studying at Neath college where I was doing A levels. These people were all on the performing arts course. I was intrigued by their scruffiness they all seemed much older with beards and individuality. I thought the guitars were really sexy I loved hanging around bands rehearsing. I wanted to be like them scruffy and free instead of a townie as they described me. I started listening to bands and I got really into the early chilli peppers music and really enjoyed the warmth of guitars etc. I decided to pick up an instrument. I tried the guitar but got frustrated with the intricate chords and finger positions. I picked up the bass, a friend Chris Tucker taught me a basic funk riff and I soon started picking out bass lines from the chilli pepper albums which was a great way to learn as these funk bass lines were quite busy and set a high standard for me. For my 17th birthday my Dad bought me my first bass. A couple of years later I went to University where I formed a band playing on a 5 string bass we played experimental progressive space funk and did a few local gigs. After graduating I moved to London and joined a female fronted grunge band as their bass player. Around this time I got really into The Pixies and had moved from funk bass lines and slap bass to using a plectrum and playing a dirtier sounding bass. After a few years I got really homesick and moved back to Wales. I had over the years been collecting bass lines I had written and decided to try and record them as songs with vocals. I enlisted the help of Lee Harvey an excellent guitarist who lived in my street, we soon found a drummer and started to put some songs together. I took the role of vocalist and started writing lyrics to go with the bass lines. Singing and playing bass at the time took a lot of practice but I got there in the end and we toured the UK as Freaky Fortnight and became involved in the DIY punk music scene. The music we played was psychedelic bluesy grunge and different to all the other punk bands we played with but I think they liked our punk attitude and raw sound. Around this time I was introduced to the music of a band called Crass, coming from Aberdare and being the daughter of a miner (the last gig they did was in Aberdare a benefit for the miners) I could really relate to the lyrics of Crass and it crystallised my outlook on politics and social issues and also explained a lot of the poverty I witnessed as a child. In 2008 Freaky fortnight after 4 years of hard work disintegrated suddenly in a puff of frustration and bad feeling We had recorded an amazing album and it felt we were on the verge of something big. To see the band fall apart of this stage was very upsetting for me as we had put a lot of money time and energy into getting it to a good level. I vowed to never rely on other musicians again! There was a computer in my house with some software on it so I carried on writing songs anyway, recording bass and vocals and then putting very basic guitar over it. I used reason4 to create drums and began experimenting with the synthesisers. My first recording as Little Eris was played on Adam Walton on BBC Radio Wales and I got invited to perform live at the Cardiff SWN festival by some local promoters who heard me on the radio. I had not anticipated playing the music live I put a shout out online for some help with video projection and Johnny Nigma came forward and has helped with the project ever since. The live shows have been as organic, natural and experimental as my musical journey, I involved other musicians and performers who I had met on my journey to bring the music to life onstage. Over the years a lot of the live stuff has been improvisational and attracted comparisons to art bands such as Psychic TV. I continued to record demos and electronic music and synthesisers began to play a bigger role in my creations. I now understand how resonance, oscillation, repetitive beats and frequencies can have a powerful effect on listeners. To me I see myself not as a performer and definitely not an entertainer but something more intangible. I think I am an artist first and foremost and music is my creative journey that has influenced how I experience the world.
Photo by Matt Kirby
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the Great Wreck and Roll Cirkus and the Unemployed Daytime Disco?
Eris: The Great Wreck and Roll Cirkus is a multi arts event started 10 years ago by SCRAP Records (sub cultural radikal arts productions) with a strong history of underground music from the traveller scene. I played Wreck & Roll shows a few times with my old band Freaky Fortnight. Our drummer was also in a band called Crowzone fronted by Gary DS founder of SCRAP Records and organiser of The Great Wreck & Roll Cirkus. Playing these shows was a big eye opener as back then I had only played in music venues with other guitar bands and these parties were multi genre events that started with live bands and then turned into a freaky ravey experience. These were big productions with massive rigs adorned with heavy handmade backdrops. There was a sense of real earthiness, it was a very real scene, real to the roots to the core. I never forgot how awesome these shows were. I was fortunate enough to contact Gary DS again some years after Freaky Fortnight had split. He mentioned he was planning a show in Cardiff and asked if I would like to be involved. I jumped at the chance and that show turned into a UK tour that took place in March and April of 2011. Being part of this was really life changing. It was amazing to play on the big stages with excellent underground bands who had been around for decades. The vibrations and musical inspiration was brilliant as the shows spanned all genres of heavy and mixed up music with dance performances, slamming DJs, circus vibe and of course all the handmade painted banners and big sound systems. After the tour I spent some time with Gary at his remote hideaway jamming and talking. I admired his respect for nature and ideas and energy. He had a relentless enthusiasm for his lifetime of creative projects. Through his music and the Wreck n Roll cirkus I think he changed a lot of lives. He was determined to bring the underground talents into the public arena by booking shows in large venues and helping to get new bands on the road. He was planning on making a really cool film too which would have been culturally important during these times. He was someone I really looked up to and was doing so much good work. Gary died tragically in an accident in Jamaica a few months after that last Wreck N Roll tour ended. He was a really amazing person at the heart of a scene with the most integrity, the real deal, a real punk rock legend. A lot of people including myself will always be holding the spirit and vibe of Gary in our hearts, it will never die.
The Unemployed Daytime Disco is an event founded in 2010 by myself and a friend called Adam Johannes. The underlying intent was to have a good time whilst being on the dole however we soon realised there were other benefits to the unemployed people of Cardiff. We provide a platform for performers, sometimes it feels like we are unofficial spokespeople for the unemployed as press often contact us for our opinions on the current situation in the UK. We also recognise wider social benefits to what we were doing. We nurture new talent and helped performers gain confidence. We help tackle social isolation and depression in unemployed people by bringing people together. We have guest acts supporting the disco such as Alan McGee founder of Creation records and published author Rachel Tresize who have achieved success through creativity. To celebrate the end of the Mayan Calender we had an electro DJ come over from Mexico. The discos have brought a refreshing cultural edge to the city, and many creative collaborations (and romantic ones!) have been spawned at the unemployed disco.
AmeriCymru: You are currently involved in a fascinating project based at the Wels Hotell in Riverside, Cardiff. Care to tell us more?
Eris: I moved in to the Wells Hotel in 2008. I had to find somewhere to live due to a break up, I had no money life was no great at that point. I found the flat to rent online and intrigued by the photo of the view of the Millennium Stadium through old oval windows I came to view it. I fell in love with the building immediately there were spirals carved in stone, a big dragon at the top of the building, to me it looked like a spooky fairytale castle and I moved in straight away! There are 6 flats in the Wells Hotel but back then none of the residents really bothered with each other. The place was becoming run down with rubbish being dumped outside, the energies were not great. A man was even found unconscious outside on a dumped settee with a syringe in his arm. The building became run down and the professional residents left. Some unsavoury characters moved in and caused damage to a flat downstairs. By early 2012 they left there were only 2 of us living in the building on the top floor. After having hassle from local gangs and previous tenants who had passed keys to drug addicts were accessing the building, my neighbour and I took matters into our own hands. We put a big lock on the front door and secured the building. We realised that the flats were not in good condition to be rented by the Estate Agents. I contacted the landlord and offered to help find good tenants who would take on the flats for what they could afford to pay. We gained access to the flats and I moved a group of people in who were performing with the little eris live band at that time. The place erupted as the newcomers revelled in the freedom the building offered. After a few months it became unproductive here the partying became disruptive, and some residents were asked to leave. After months of chaos things finally settled down and we have a good group of creative people here now who have mutual respect and together we can organise happenings using the whole building. Our first project was called Little Tokyo we opened the building to the public and webstreamed a live performance / installation into the Tate Modern oil tanks as part of Tracey Moberleys Tweet me Up exhibition. A welsh DIY label called Afiach has also launched from the Wells Hotel that has hosted live bands and organised graffiti artists to do amazing wall murals outside. I did the So Many Nights single launch party here as part of an art show called The Ghost Crystal where we projected the music video on the building next door and had performances under the moon with a fire in the yard. We are safe here for at least the next 12months while the building is being restored to its former glory and aim to make the most of this time by having consciousness expanding events and exhibitions. Having everyone under one roof means we can share ideas and skills and networks, it feels exciting to be part of what is being created here.
Little Eris with band members James Hill and Jasamine Jackdaw - Photo by Photo Evolution
AmeriCymru: What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations?
Eris: As a musician I am often asked what I am listening to but to be honest I dont really actively seek out new music. I am often to directed to music having had comparisons drawn to particular acts. I really like the creative life of Genesis P Orridge and the theories of chaos magicians such as Grant Morrison. I have been listening a lot to binaural tones and learning about frequencies. Frequencies can actually heal diseases there is a lot more to music than most people realise. I have been listening recently to more hip hop than usual, Hieroglyphics are one act that have caught my attention. Other music I have been listening to recently is music by electro producer Legowelt. I also really like discovering music from Cardiff eg welsh language anarchist hip hop duo Llwybr Llaethog who live nearby, and Euros Childs I love his feel good sing alongy song called Painting Pictures. An album I listened to a lot this year is called Tales of Terror by Inner Terrestrials, there are a couple of stand out songs on there and the whole album generally has a warm sound with good musicianship. I am very random when it comes to music consumption its often what appears before me, what is recommended to me by friends or what I hear around me. Live acts I have enjoyed this year are the underground heavy sounds of Tribazik and Dead Silence both of whom I met on the Wreck n Roll tour. Ive also been enjoying the music of Princes Chelsea recently this year. I often look at what other female electro artists are doing as a point of reference I was even checking out the Welsh Lady Gaga tribute Donna Marie on youtube last week as I was interested to see how she cleverly managed to create scaled down versions of Gagas extravagant live productions for smaller pubs and clubs.
AmeriCymru: Where can people go to hear/purchase your music online?
Eris: The single So Many Nights is available to buy from CDBaby and other music download sites. There is also a free album of demos that can be found online from 2009 called Molecules R Us that might interest some music fans.
The new So Many Nights music video is a good introduction to the world of little eris this is a showcase of a lot of creative talent from South Wales. I am building up the content the website for the Original Human record label at the moment. Theres links to all sorts of little eris media on there http://www.originalhuman.co.uk .
AmeriCymru: What's next for Eris Kaoss?
Eris: With two more singles to release in the coming months I am looking to creating new music videos and hopefully reach more people as an artist. I hope collaborations at the Wells Hotel will continue to blossom. I am looking forward to developing Original Human as a company to release singles by other artists too for example artist Jacqueline Janine Jones has an amazing track called Deeper Skies that we hope to release through the label in 2013. My partner James Dawson and I also plan to collaborate on a drum and bass project called Liquid Eris. My favourite thing to do is create lofi demos so whatever I am doing with the projects I am always recording new sounds and loops, and putting together rough recordings. I also try to play lots of smaller shows where I can experiment with new material. So I will just be carrying on chaos as usual.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Eris: The world needs imaginative people and creativity. Collaborating with others is so rewarding and it can be done with or without a budget. Share your ideas freely plant them like seeds. Be unique there is no right or wrong way to express yourself, always be mindful of the energies that are being created but regardless of what is going around you never lose sight of your dreams! I am really into the idea of creating your own reality I put a lot of theory into practice over the past few years and have seen good results so I would recommend that people look into what we are capable of as human beings. I hope we see a world one day where our human potential is released, there is so much out there that is being kept from us tesla energy, orgone energy, natural cures, how we can heal ourselves etc. I think these things are so important and we can all be educating ourselves and each other. It is music that has led me to many discoveries relating to the mind, body, spirit and our environments. They are inextricably linked to music in both the experience of it and in the creation of it. .
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Interview by Ceri Shaw Ceri Shaw on Google+
Interview With Welsh Singer Iris Williams - Appearing at NAFOW Scranton 2012
By Ceri Shaw, 2012-08-02
Iris: My fondest memories of Tonyrefail, which is actually where I was brought up (Pontypridd is where I was born) were my school days, my weekly piano lessons with Mrs. Iris Llewellyn, (who coached me for my scholarship into the RWCMD) and youth club.
I also loved my Friday night visit to the local Fish and chip shop!! I add that I loved visiting Pontypridd market days and little did I know at the time that my biological family were right there.
AmeriCymru:- When did you first become aware of your musical talent and your voice? When was your first live performance?
Iris: I always loved music from very first time I was introduced to it by my foster mother Bronwen Llewellyn. (No relation to the my music teacher Iris, just a coincidence) Bronwen was a musician, she played the piano which was situated in the best room as they used to call it in those days. Bronwen would play popular tunes and I automatically sang along, having learned them from hearing them a few times. It was she who then encouraged me to sing more, and entered me into my very first local talent contest, for which I won £7. That got me hooked, and furthered my growing appetite for a singing career.
AmeriCymru:- Your biggest UK hit came in 1979 with ''He Was Beautiful'', a song based on the theme to Michael Cimino''s hugely successful and widely acclaimed movie ''The Deer Hunter''. How did you come to record this track and what role did it play in your career?
Iris: My recording of this song was purely accidental!!
My manager at the time suggested I do a session with the Birmingham BBC radio orchestra on my way to the Isle Of Man where I was engaged to perform in a summer season. I chose five songs from the BBC''s music library which were in my voice range, one of which was "HE WAS BEAUTIFUL" and the songs from the session were played on a weekend Saturday morning radio programme, hosted by David Jacobs .
When the songs aired one Saturday morning the station was bombarded with mail requesting the recording of "HE WAS BEAUTIFUL". The recording producer for EMI (Wally Ridley who was responsible for many of Vera Lynne''s recordings plus many more) was in his garden that morning, and his wife called him inside to listen to my rendition of the song. Mr. Ridley made inquiries as to where he could contact me, which he did, and asked me to fly over from the Isle of Man to the EMI recording studios in London to make a professional recording of the song. This was all very exiting and dramatic for me.
I did the recording in one session with a live orchestra, left, returned to the Isle Of Man that same day and thought little of it. Then I heard it played on radio 2 some weeks later on the Jimmy Young Show whilst driving to some place and almost crashed the car. It was then followed up with many air plays especially by Terry Wogan.
That of course was the beginning of a a wonderful career which led to many more recordings, TV series, guest appearances, and many Royal command performances for HMS The Queen, the late Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, the late Queen mother Prince Charles and so on.
AmeriCymru:- You have performed with, amongst others, Bob Hope and Rosemary Clooney. Any memories of these performers ( or others ) that you care to share with our readers?
Iris: My first meeting with Bob Hope, was indeed memorable. It was at President Ford''s Golf Celebrity Royal charity performance held at the London Dorchester hotel. Bob Hope, was the master of ceremonies, and personally introduced me to the stage. He was warm, charming and very kind.
I was to work with Bob Hope again from 1988 to1996 every summer at President Fords Celebrity golf tournament held in Vail Colorado.
I first met Rosemary Clooney at her benefit concert in California in memory of her sister. I was invited to sing at the benefit via my American manager, Mary Ellyn Devery, a friend of Rosemary''s, who asked if I could sing one song at this benefit as an introduction to the American audiences. Rosemary, being a very generous artiste, readily obliged.
Ms. Devery was responsible for bringing the Bolshoi Ballet to America, and the Children of the Bolshoi Academy to Vail Colorado every summer at the request of Mrs. Betty Ford. Ms. Devery was also a successful Broadway producer.
I was among many big stars that night including Harry Connick Jr, Lucy Arnez, (Lucille Ball''s daughter) and Carroll Bennett.
Rosemary became a friend and mentor, and introduced me to the New York music scene, which led to such engagements as the famed Oak room at the Algonquin hotel. Tony Bennett is also among the many stars I have been connected with here in New York.
On the UK side I have worked with Des O Conner, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ted Rogers, Sir Harry Secombe,Sir Jimmy Saville, Cannon and Ball and many others.
AmeriCymru:- Last year you performed a concert to raise money for the Rhydyfelin credit union in South Wales. Care to tell us a little more about your involvement with that organisation and other South Wales charities?
Iris: I opened the first Credit union in the late 80''s with a charity concert and have supported it ever since. I enjoy doing charities in my home country. There are too many to mention, but here are just a few. Children in Need, (which is a major charity close to my heart), The Falklands anniversary charity concert, TY Hafen ,The children''s hospital, Lord George Thomas hospice, etc etc... As an artiste, I feel a certain responsibility to use my birth given talent to help others.
AmeriCymru:- Is there any particular recording/performance or achievement of which you are most proud? What , for you, has been the highlight of your career so far?
Iris: "HE WAS BEAUTIFUL" will always remain my first pride, love,and Joy, and is included in every one of my performances.
The highlight of my career, I have to say, was receiving the OBE from HMS Queen Elizabeth the Second personally in 2004 for services to music and charity.
AmeriCymru:- Where can people go to hear and purchase your music online?
Iris: To my website, iriswilliams.com . I believe they are also available on Amazon and on many Google sites.
AmeriCymru:- What''s next for Iris Williams?
Iris: I would hope a lot more to come, as I have no intentions of slowing down. I enjoy performing anywhere and everywhere. I am in the first stages of writing an autobiography, or memoirs. I particularly enjoy entertaining on cruise liners where I meet a lot of Welsh passengers who give me HIREATH for Wales.
I am scheduled to perform as a special guest at Scranton Pennsylvania this coming August at their Annual North American Festival of Wales. I add this quote:- "This gala evening is co-sponsored by the Welsh North American Foundation and the Welsh North American Association will honor the 2012 recipient of the NWAF Heritage Medallion, Beth Landmesser. Entertainment following dinner and presentation will be by singer, Iris Williams, OBE."
AmeriCymru:- Any final message for our readers and NAFOW attendees?
Iris: I wish you all continued success with the your projects. I believe that bringing and sharing Wales with North America is truly wonderful.
Pob bendith.
Dr J. Marshall Bevil: Lecture on the Crwth at the West Coast Eisteddfod 2011
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-10-04
Crwth, which literally denotes a swelling-out or hump, came to be a Welsh generic term for several small lyres beginning no later than the tenth century, and it probably was a reference to the hunch-backed appearance of the yoke, or upper frame, that prevailed all the way through the modern form.
The lyre is one of the three large, diverse groups within the string instrument, or chordophone, family. Lyres and zithers have strings whose planes are basically parallel to the soundboards. That sets both groups apart from harps, whose string planes are more or less perpendicular to the soundboards. Therefore both the autoharp and the harpsichord are zithers,not harps, and the Estonian talharpa and the Finnish jouhikantele are bowed lyres, not bowed harps.
Unlike zithers, many lyres have yokes to which the strings are attached near the instruments upper ends. Yokes can be either open or split. Some split-yoke lyres such as the crwth were equipped with fingerboards, while others such as the jouhikantele were not. Some open- and split-yoke lyres with and without fingerboards were bowed, while some were plucked. Others,such as the crwth, were played both ways.
Lyres of the crwth subclass prior to ca. 1500 were neither native nor unique to the British Isles. They were known on the European mainland by names like chrotta, rotta, rotte, and chorus. The last of those terms also sometimes denoted the bagpipe. In England the lyres sometimes were called by their Continental names. Chaucer, for example, mentioned play[ing] upon a rote in the prologue to Canterbury Tales. In addition to crwth, prominent British Insular terms were crowd(e) and crowth. In Ireland, members of the crwth subclass were sometimes termed crottach and cruit, although the latter
In sum, crwth, crowd, and related terms designated possibly numerous different instruments that often were in stylistic flux and whose lifetimes often overlapped each other over about 900 years.
Except for a few specimens representing the modern crwths immediate predecessor, only fragments of its ancestors survive. Reconstructions of earlier forms are based partly on those fragments and partly on written descriptions but mainly on paintings, drawings, carvings, and sculptures that have to be assessed carefully. For example, a drawing in a Durham Cathedral Library manuscript shows a twelfth-century lyre with drones. However, there is no evidence of drones being consistently associated with the crwth subclass over the next two hundred years. That leaves us to conclude that two tangential drones with four central strings were experimented with at least as early as around 1100, but were consistently present on newly-emerging crwths and crowds only from the middle to late fourteenth century.
The typical crythor, or crwth-player (or, in England, crowder or crowther), from before the early to middle fifteenth century was an itinerant, lower-order minstrel who supplied music at social functions, often on the estates of the landed gentry. British minstrelsy gradually died out over a period of about a hundred years, ca. 1380-1480, due to many of the minstrelsi nvolvement in civil unrest. The instruments of the minstrels, along with some of their practices and music, then were absorbed into the folk culture. Therefore, after around 1480, the crythorion, or crwth-players, were less and less often traveling minstrels and more and more often resident fiddlers for their home communities.
The second stage of the modern crwths life stretched from around 1600 to about 1730. During that time, there probably was at least one crwth and one crythor active in or near almost every Welsh village; and the crwth, its music, and dancing to its music were regular features at fairs, weddings, holiday events, and other festive gatherings.
One type of crwth music was used for competitive solo dancing. Each contestant in turn would enter the room or outdoor dancing area to a processional piece, often carrying a broom across his shoulders, and executing a stylized step that became more and more intricate. The musician then would change to a different piece to which the dancer performed his most ambitious steps, sometimes leaping over a tall, lighted candle, as referred to in the nursery rhyme Jack, Be Nimble. The music changed back to the processional for the dancers exit.
The second stage of the modern crwths life stretched from around 1600 to about 1730. During that time, there probably was at least one crwth and one crythor active in or near almost every Welsh village; and the crwth, its music, and dancing to its music were regular features at fairs, weddings, holiday events, and other festive gatherings.
The crwth also sometimes accompanied ballad singing, a common way of disseminating news in the days before widespread literacy. An example of a ballad tune is this variant of Diniweidrwydd, meaning innocence.
The modern crwth sometimes was played with the pibgorn, a capped-reed woodwind with a barrel made from the leg bone of a ram and a bell and a mouthpiece made from the shell of a cows horn. A capped reed is not held between the players lips. Instead, the player blows into a cap at the top of the barrel, and the reed is located at the base of the cap and vibrates as the airstream passes by it.
Occasionally the crwth was also played in ensemble with the harp, or telyn. An example of crwth, telyn, and pibgorn playing together is my arrangement of The Fox, a reel based on a ballad tune.
Slightly overlapping the middle period of the modern crwths lifetime was the third and final one, beginning around 1720 and continuing until the mid-nineteenth century when, according to oral accounts, the last of the old players died.
During that time, dancing and ballad-singing fell out of favor due to the evangelical movement, which condemned so-called worldly pastimes.The religious movement reached the height of its intensity between ca. 1730 and 1740. That decade was followed over the next hundred years by recurrent episodes of zealotry. During each of those events, crwths, playing cards, and other so-called implements of the devil were discarded and often chopped to pieces and burned en masse in village squares. Only a fraction of traditional Welsh music was written down by musically literate auditors, only some of those records found their ways into print, and editors of publications often corrected folk music according to academic rules and models.
Regarding performance technique, older men traditionally taught the younger men and boys without benefit of methods, books or written collections of etudes or other pieces. Sorry, ladies, but crwth playing was not gender-neutral. In fact, Meredith Morris, in 1920, reported an old Welsh belief that a girl or woman playing the crwth would cause the dead to rise from their graves and wander around the village or countryside. The only contemporaneous written descriptions we have of the playing of the modern crwth are more poetic, picturesque, or travelogue-like than technically precise. Most were written late in the instruments lifetime by non-performers from outside the indigenous culture.
Reconstructive efforts from before the middle to late twentieth century suffered from the investigators almost exclusive orientation toward academic music, models, and methods in the days before modern ethnomusicology. Those investigators also were unaware of evidence that has since been found, analyzed, and integrated into newer assessments of the crwth, its music, its ancestry, and its social function. Finally, few lengthy studies from before the 1970s addressed the crwth alone but rather either ignored it or treated it as an inconsequential, primitive figure in the history of string instruments.
Lets now consider the modern crwth from a post-1960s perspective. That instrument, henceforth called simply the crwth unless the need for clarity dictates otherwise, has four strings over a flat, fretless fingerboard. Those strings are stopped by the players left fingers and normally are bowed. Two other strings are drawn off to the observers left side of the fingerboard and function as unstopped drones plucked by the players left thumb.
There are two reported tunings of the crwths strings, both from very late in its life. The more widely publicized tuning is one in which the bowed strings are tuned in octaves separated by major seconds. That tuning was reported by Edward Jones, in his Musical and Poetical Relicks [ sic] of the Welsh Bards, published in 1784, after a description in National Library of Wales Manuscript 168.C.
In 1800, William Bingley published A Tour Round North Wales, in which he reported a tuning of the bowed strings in octaves separated by fifths,. That report often has been either dismissed out of hand or described as an unusual tuning, due largely to the way in which most investigators have simply passed along Joness report, both uncritically and sometimes without citation of source, thereby fostering the idea that the tuning of the bowed strings in octaves separated by seconds was much more commonly used than the tuning described by Bingley, when, in fact, there originally was only one record of each tuning.
My experiments in 1972 repeatedly bore out earlier declarations of the impracticality of tuning the highest string to B above the treble staff. However, accurate identification of individual tones without mechanical assistance requires perfect pitch, which even most trained musicians do not have. I suspect that Bingley had at least reasonably good relative pitch, heard the intervals fairly accurately, observed that the highest string was tuned quite high, and then either estimated the individual pitches incorrectly or simply notated the intervals arbitrarily to create a visually balanced illustration on the page.
The tuning that I use for the bowed strings is based on Bingleys report, but with pitches at lower levels to allow the tuning of the highest, or rightmost, string. I further suspect that Bingley erred in his notation of the pitches of the drones after mistaking the interval of a fourth above the drones for a fifth. Fifths and fourths are easily confused with each other, especially when other fifths, other fourths, and also octaves are being heard at the same time and in the same key. Raising the pitch of the drones a step each allows them to function as parts of both tonic and dominant chords. It also matches Joness report of drones tuned a fourth below the lower pair of bowed strings. Finally, with regard to tuning, we must recall that the crwth as a folk instrument was subjected to more variation of technique than was acceptable for academic instruments. Therefore, it is very possible, if not likely, that the tunings reported by Jones and Bingley were only two of perhaps several that commonly were used by different performers.
Lets now consider the crwths other principal parts. All strings connected to a wooden tailpiece that was fastened to an end-button by a gut retainer. The strings also were drawn across a bridge whose upper edge was only slightly curved. The slight curvature allowed both the bowing of all four strings over the fingerboard at once and the bowing of groups of two adjacent strings.
Ill now demonstrate the normal plucking and bowing of the strings, the bowing of only two strings at once, and the plucking of strings over the fingerboard.
The crwth bridge has three legs. The long leg on the observers left goes through the corresponding sound-hole, rests against the inside of the back of the resonator, and conducts vibration from the strings directly to the back of the instrument, thus acting as a sound-post. It also takes some of the downward pressure off the flat soundboard, which is not as strong as the convex soundboards of the violin and its kin.
The body of the crwth, including its neck, was carved and chiseled from a solid block of either maple or European sycamore. The soundboard and fingerboard were separate pieces.
The crwth had no separate sound-post and no bass-bar, and playing it above first position was difficult and quite possibly never done. For those reasons, the crwth lacked the power of tone; the expressive range; the three-to four-octave melodic range; and the rich, almost vocalistic, timbre of a well-made violin, viola, cello, or double-bass.However, due to its flat fingerboard and nearly flat bridge, the crwth could function as a self-contained, harmonizing string ensemble more easily than individual orchestral bowed string instruments can. Also, the crwth was potentially much more agile melodically than earlier investigators gave it credit for being. In fact, when one uses the tuning in octaves and fifths, the crwth has nearly the same first-position melodic range that the violin, viola, and cello have. This is shown in the following rendition of the hornpipe Nos Galan, meaning New Years Eve but better known today as Deck the Hall.
The crwth was tuned by turning either pegs or wrest pins installed frontally near the top of the yoke. One seventeenth-century drawing shows T-shaped pegs. Surviving pre-1850 crwths and most copies and reconstructions are equipped with metal harp wrest pins that are turned with tuning keys. To the best of my knowledge, no pre-1850 crwth bows survive, although there are numerous reconstructions. Written descriptions, icons, and the history of the bow all point toward different bow designs employed in connection with both the modern crwth and its forebears.
By the end of the modern crwths life, two common bow designs were those involving 1) the Medieval curved stick with the hair drawn across most of its arc; and 2) the pike-nosed bow with frog, which appeared around 1620 and, by 1680, was equipped with various devices for adjusting the tension of the hair. Some icons showing late pre-modern crwths reveal that a third bow featured a straight stick with hair drawn between a nearly squared-off tip and a block mounted part-way along the stick. What could have been the short-nosed bow mentioned by Gruffydd ap Dafydd ap Howell is represented by a sculpture on a beam in the roof of the nave in St. Marys Church, Shrewsbury.
Written reports, literary references, and old sayings about the crwth point toward preference for an abrasive tone and the loudest possible dynamic level in performance. Therefore it is almost certain that the bow was pressed hard against the strings, and probably drawn diagonally across them near the bridge, most if not all of the time. Diagonal bowing with heavy tracking near the bridge would have produced the desired sound and also could account, at least in part, for the sloping bridge that appears to have been a consistent feature of the fully-developed modern crwth. Ill now illustrate the preferred sound, with the bow at an angle across the strings, by playing the jig Ceiliog y Rheddyn.
Although a loud, abrasive tone was usually preferred, the crwth was capable of some differences in both dynamics and timbre. Ill now illustrate those differences with another jig called Ffarwel, Ned Puw, a variant of a ballad tune by the same name. The original ballad tells how Ned Puw ventured into a haunted cave and was never seen again. Note the echo effect, suggestive of a cave, on the repetition of musical phrases.
The modern crwths immediate forebear was customarily held at either the shoulder or the chest, in some cases supported by a neck-strap. That holding method, which is shown in a panel on what probably was part of a cupboard at Cotehele Manor, in Cornwall, indicates that at least some of the earliest modern crwths were held in the same way. Holding at the shoulder could reflect the influence of the bowed rebec, which, like the pre-modern crwth, was an instrument of the lower-order, itinerant minstrels. Although I am a violinist, I have found it difficult to hold and play the modern crwth at the shoulder. Both that method and holding at the chest cause problems with plucking the drones. Holding at the shoulder is also made difficult by the modern crwths straight-across, or squared-off, lower end. The rounded lower end of the modern crwths parent form makes the shoulder position more comfortable and practical, allowing the player to make small adjustments more easily.
Crwths and crowds of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries sometimes were held at the neck or shoulder, with the top of the instrument pointing downward, as represented in the 1397 misericord carving in Worcester Cathedral. It is unclear whether or not they also were sometimes held upright on the players laps at that time. A painting from around 1400, on an interior wall of the chapter house at Westminster Abbey, shows a musician holding his instrument upright against his left knee, but he is shown preparing to play, not actually playing.
I have found the most workable holding for the modern crwth to be the modified upright position that you have seen me using today. This method, which may have emerged late in the instruments lifetime, would explain the disappearance of the earlier, rounded lower end that would not have been needed for holding it that way. Also, by allowing the crwth to roll from side to side, the rounded lower end could have been a disadvantage to one using this cross-torso hold.
Still another change distinguishing the modern crwth from its predecessors is the apparent relocation of the pegs or wrest-pins. Rear-mounted devices, which icons suggest were present on some earlier instruments, are workable while tuning with the bow if the crwth is held up with its lower end at the chest or shoulder. However, frontal tuners work better if the crwth is held either with the upper end on or near the players lap, as shown in the Worcester sculpture, or facing away from the player, either vertically or obliquely upright, with the lower end on the lap. A cross-torso hold also would have worked nicely with the diagonal bow travel and sloping bridge that together enabled production of the abrasive tone. A vertical upright hold does not work as well with diagonal bowing, because it forces an awkward, uncomfortable bow stroke. It also forces a backward bending of the left wrist, which in turn adversely affects finger action. The cross-torso position allows the wrist to be straight and relaxed and the fingers to move smoothly, and the sloping bridge facilitates diagonal bowing with a more natural stroke. In addition, the holding position in combination with the tuning in octaves and fifths lets both melodic and harmonizing notes fall easily and naturally under the fingers.For these reasons, I almost always use the upright cross-torso hold, although I occasionally hold the crwth both at the chest with a strap and, as now, at the shoulder.
A workable variation combining the seated cross-torso hold with the strap-assisted hold is a standing cross-torso hold with a neck-strap. That position, which I have used with some success allows the player to move around while providing some advantages of the seated cross-torso position, although not the same high degree of stability.
Ill now touch on the most important points concerning the modern crwths place in the history of the string family. Middle Eastern instruments with independent fingerboards emerged as far back as ca. 3000-2500 BCE. Their descendants became the ancestors of the lute, the rebec, the mandolin, the guitar, the viol, and the violin. The incurved resonator was an invention that emerged for either aesthetic or acoustical reasons, not to aid bowing. Around the seventh or eighth century of the Common Era, the bow was developed in the Middle East and applied to some independent fingerboard lyres. Within two centuries, both those instruments and the bow had entered Europe.
The emergence of native European lyres, harps, and zithers paralleled Middle Eastern developments. The Greco-Roman kithara, lyra, and testudo are examples of ancient European lyres that experienced a revival in Carolingian civilization and later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.. Like the evolution of Middle Eastern lyres, the emergence and later revival of the European lyres of classical antiquity were separate lines of development from that leading to the crwth.
Other lyres appeared to the north of Greece and Rome from the early Middle Ages until past the tenth century. Developments often were experimental and followed numerous disparate lines, not all of which survived.
From their earliest appearance in Europe, ca. 900, the bow and fingerboard was applied to some native yoke lyres. Thus emerged the European bowed fingerboard lyre with yoke.
We can conclude, from both literary references and icons, that a distinct crwth subclass began emerging from the earlier European lyres in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The following two hundred years, from which more evidence has survived, saw experimentation with bows, fingerboards, numbers of strings, bridge design and placement, other structural features, and probably playing methods. Those events paralleled, but were separate from, those that produced the viol and later the violin and its kin.
By ca. 1400, the two-plus-four string configuration, and probably the bridge with one long leg, were present on at least some members of the crwth subclass, even though older designs were still around.
The final events setting the modern crwth apart from its parent form evidently began about 1500, and they may have continued for some time after that. Those events, not necessarily in the order here named, were: the likely movement of the tuning devices from the back to the front; the squaring-off of the previously rounded lower end that may have prompted Gruffydd ap Dafydd ap Howell to mention a wheel-like front; the standardization of the slightly wider, sloping bridge; the transition from a quasi-academic minstrels instrument to a true folk instrument; the initial building of the new crwths dance and ballad music repertoire around a core of minstrels music; and the confinement of the new instrument to Wales.Although it is hard to be certain on all points, the Cotehele sculpture seems to show most of the final structural changes.
The last part of this presentation will address, through three stories with musical examples, the place of the crythor, or crwth player, in traditional Welsh culture from the early through the final years of the modern instrument. Each story is a variant of a popular folktale.
RHYS CRYTHOR:
In the early sixteenth century, when the modern crwth was replacing its parent form, there lived a curious character now known only as Rhys Crythor, that is, Rhys the crwth player. He was an outstanding performer and the winner of the crwth competition at the 1525 Eisteddfod. Rhys was both eccentric and short-tempered. One day, he rode into town with both the mane and the tail of his horse clipped extremely short. While he was prepared for the people to laugh at him, he was surprised and angered when they laughed at his horse. Later that afternoon, he noticed that the town stable was unattended, so he went inside and located the horses of several of the towns leading citizens. Shortly thereafter, the owners of the horses walked into the stable and were horrified at what they saw. Each horse had its cheeks deeply slashed from the corners of its mouth to the bases of its ears.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Rhys laughed hysterically, wiping his knife on the front of his shirt. Yes, my horse is a funny sight, indeed. Look, even your horses are laughing at him!
THE OLD CRYTHOR:
It was commonly believed that some crythorion had supernatural powers. One such person was an old man who was active during the seventeenth century. He would often appear at a fair in Pembrokeshire during an afternoon, disappear as surreptitiously as he had come, and then be seen in Cardiganshire that same evening. Such rapid travel was unheard of in the days when traveling a distance of only ten to fifteen miles usually took all day or all night. With his long, white, flowing hair and beard, the old man looked like the ghost of some ancient Celtic sage. He often sang, to the accompaniment of his crwth, eerie songs in which he predicted peoples misfortunes. His most chilling prophecy, delivered at a wedding feast, was also his last:
This is my song of final farewell,
For after I have finished and departed,
You shall see me no more;
And your rejoicing for these young people is premature,
For I see nothing but dreadful tragedy for them
And much grief for their friends and loved ones,
And that before the next setting of the sun.
The next morning, the young bride was found strangled to death in her bed. Her husband was suspected of the horrible deed but was never found, and the old crythor was never seen again.
JAMES GREEN:
During the early to middle nineteenth century, there lived near Bron y Garth a certain James Green, who died in 1855 and was, according to oral accounts, the last of the old crwth players. Once, when he was walking into town to play at a dance, Green found himself face-to-face with an irate bull that had strayed from someones pasture. With the bull in hot pursuit, Green retreated up a tree and seated himself on a limb. The furious bull tossed its head and stamped its feet below. To pass the time until the bull left, Green began to fiddle, whereupon the bull gave a terrified snort, turned, and ran.
Stop! cried Green. Ill change the tune! - but the bull soon disappeared around a bend in the road. Ill close now with a quotation from Meredith Morris and one more tune:
To have lived beyond [this time] would not have been good for the health of the last of the crythorion, and it was well that he slumbered and slept. May his shade be mightily comforted when the zephyr playeth upon the crwth of the old yew tree.
DR. J. MARSHALL (JACK) BEVIL is a retired string music educator, a musicologist, and a composer. He holds the degrees M.Mus and Ph.D, both in musicology, from the University of North Texas, with dual specializations in oral-aural traditions, especially those of Celtic Britain and the Celtic diaspora (particularly the American Southern Uplands), and British national music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from Sullivan through Vaughan Williams. In addition to his teaching, research scholarship, and composition, he also acts on occasion as a forensic musicologist, or consultant and expert witness in copyright and intellectual property disputes. His masters thesis, The Welsh Crwth, Its History, and Its Genealogy, involved three years of research and writing, including the summer of 1972, which he spent in Britain. Although completed in 1973, that document and its companion sound recording, which together ultimately reached dissertation proportions, remain standard reference material on the crwth. Since completing his masters and terminal degrees, Dr. Bevil has made presentations on the crwth, including both broadcasts and a paper read at a chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society.
Online links of possible interest include:
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/cth01.html.htm - thesis abstract
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/disab.html.htm - dissertation
abstract
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/pubpr.html.htm - list of
publications and presentations
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/tnc02.html.htm - post-doctoral
investigation, question of music played during the Titanic disaster
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/ku2009.html - post-doctoral
investigation, linguistic basis of British national musical style, ca. 1870-
1920
www.scoreexchange.com - compositions online (under Browse / B
From the Maple Comes Music:- a Lecture-Recital on the Welsh Crwth by J. Marshall Bevil, Ph.D.
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-09-09
J. Marshall Bevil, Ph.D.
24, 25 September, 2011; 1:00 P.M.
Outdoor Theater, Barnsdall Park
4800 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California, USA
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Dr. Bevil in period costume circa 1830 |
Online links of possible interest include:
llywarch/cth01.html.htm - thesis abstract
llywarch/disab.html.htm - dissertation abstract
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/pubpr.html.htm - list of publications and presentations
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/tnc02.html.htm - post-doctoral investigation, question of music played during the Titanic disaster
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/ku2009.html - post-doctoral investigation, linguistic basis of British national musical style, ca. 1870-1920
www.scoreexchange.com - compositions online (under Browse by Composer / B
We are very pleased to be able to present a second interview with Digon o Grwth/Master of the Crwth, Jack Bevil to coincide with this year's St David's Day celebrations. If you missed our earlier three part interview with Jack please go here . Jack Bevil will be lecturing and performing at this year's West Coast Eisteddfod on Saturday September 24th. Further details will be announced shortly. Hear Jack play a selection of traditional Welsh melodies on the crwth at the bottom of this page .
Jack: Thank you so much for your continued interest and for giving me the opportunity to perform and inform at the upcoming West Coast Eisteddfod. My last Eisteddfod was the 1972 Royal National at Haverfordwest, where I did my first ethnomusicological field research. It was also there that I got my first real, live experience with spoken Welsh, which was quite different from what Id gotten from books. During some of the time in September, Ill be moving around and giving impromptu performances as an itinerant crythor , or crwth-player. In addition, Im preparing a lecture-recital in which Ill lecture on the issues of the instrument itself, the origin and various meanings of the word crwth , reconstructed performance techniques (especially holding, tuning, bowing, and bridge placement), the crwths origins, and its place in early sixteenth- through middle nineteenth-century Welsh folk culture. The recital will consist of performances of pieces to illustrate some of the points made in the lecture as those points are made. The presentation is only in its early preparatory stages now. Ill send more detail, including a short video, later.
AmeriCymru: Care to tell us a little about the crwth for the benefit of any of our readers who may not be acquainted with the instrument?
Jack: The modern, or most recent, crwth was a small lyre -technically a bowed and plucked fingerboard yoke lyre, as shown in the picture below - that appears to have flourished in Wales from between ca. 1490-1510 until about 1740-50. It barely survived in practice, in rapidly decreasing numbers, from the mid-eighteenth century until shortly after the mid-nineteenth century.
The four main strings were drawn over a nearly flat bridge and a flat, fretless fingerboard. Those four strings were played with a bow held in the right hand, and they were stopped by the tips of the players left fingers. Two open, or unstopped, drone strings, also passed over the bridge, ran along the observers-left side of the fingerboard, and were plucked by the left thumb. 
Crwth with bow ( 1970 reconstruction )
Unlike the violin and the other academic orchestral strings, and like some of its predecessors, the modern crwth was a folk instrument, and it was one of the last of a long line of chordophones that underwent many changes over the centuries. Therefore, it never achieved the violins strict standardization of either design or performance practice. Crwth performance practice, in fact, appears to have varied greatly from shortly before the modern crwths emergence from prototypes until its extinction in practice by ca. 1860.
Crwth itself, which means a swelling out , appears to have been applied to a number of different yoke lyres from at least as far back as the eleventh century. Given the literal meaning of the word, it is likely that not only the modern crwth but also its predecessors shared a hunchbacked appearance. Crwth and its English equivalent crowd also were occasionally applied to modern orchestral string instruments such as the violin after the modern crwth became extinct in practice.
The prototypes of the modern crwth seem to have emerged in Continental Europe, where they were called c hrotta, rotta, rota, rotte, and rote throughout much of the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxons and later the Normans brought various prototypes of the modern crwth with them across the North Sea and the English Channel. During their first several centuries in the British Isles, those instruments and the modified forms of them that almost continuously evolved were usually known by their Continental names, and that practice evidently continued until some point late in the high Middle Ages (twelfth through fourteenth centuries), well after the emergence of the English term crowd , the surname Crowder (lyre-player, or fiddler) , and the Welsh term crwth . Chaucer (ca. 1340-1400), for example, mentions the rote in the general prologue to The Canterbury Tales (And certainly he hadde a murye note: / Wel koude he synge, and pleyen on a rote.).
Cruit was the Irish term for one or more of the early lyres, and it also seems to have denoted small harps in some cases. Other Irish designations of lyres were timpan and tiompan .
The lyres (as well as Medieval bagpipes) were also sometimes given the Latin designations choro and chorus , probably a reference to their abilities to play multiple notes simultaneously. Much later, the line Strike the harp, and join the chorus in the familiar New Year carol Deck the Hall, whose music was a dance tune known in Welsh as Nos Galan, or New Years Eve, may well have been a reference to the crwth, not a vocal ensemble. This looseness and complexity of nomenclature across several centuries is one of a number of issues that make inquiries and conclusions about the crwth and its forebears potentially very tricky.
The various small lyres were most often associated with the itinerant, lower-class minstrels until around or shortly after the close of the Middle Ages. That somewhat dubious distinction actually worked to those instruments advantage, because it helped them be readily absorbed into the folk culture, where they survived the demise of minstrelsy. By the fourteenth century, they had passed their heyday on the Continent. It seems that, over the next hundred to hundred fifty years, the last of the modern crwths forebears were confined to the English West Country and Wales, and that the final structural changes that distinguish the modern crwth - especially the anterior rather than posterior tuning pegs, the squared-off rather than rounded lower end, and the distinctive sloping or obliquely-positioned bridge took place in Wales, where the crwth was used at country dances and on occasion in the hands of ballad singers. It was sometimes played at the dances along with the pibgorn, or hornpipe, a capped-reed woodwind with a barrel made from the shinbone of a ram and a bell made from a cow horn. The telyn, or harp, also joined the crwth in performance on some occasions.
It is important to remember that while some of the modern crwths general lyre-like features give it a broad visual resemblance to some very ancient instruments such as the Hebraic kinnor of Old Testament times, the modern crwth, although old, is not a truly ancient instrument and therefore was not played by the Druids or other early inhabitants of Celtic Britain.
It is also important to note that the crwth was not an ancestor of the violin. Surviving iconographic evidence makes it clear that the huge split in the string family that resulted in the emergence of the independent fingerboard lyre - that is, the lyre with a fingerboard but no yoke - and in some cases the incurved sides also, took place not in Medieval Europe but in the ancient Middle East - hence al ud , from which came lute - perhaps as early as ca. 3000 B.C. That pre-dated by over three millennia the development of the chordophone bow, also in the Middle East. Therefore the incurving of the sides of the resonator, or sound-box, took place far from Europe, initially to facilitate plucking, for acoustical reasons, or both, not to aid bowing. The late nineteenth-century view that the violin emerged when the yoke was removed from the crwth and the sides were incurved to help with bowing was a misapplication of superficially understood Darwinian evolutionary theory and in most cases no knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern developments.
AmeriCymru: Why did the crwth disappear?
Jack: Ill preface my answer to that by stating that I, with regret, must face the fact that theres not a religion known to mankind that does not have at least one or two skeletons in its closet.
Evangelical Protestantism of the kind that was found in Wales, beginning ca. 1690 and gaining a solid toe-hold in the early to middle eighteenth century, in my estimation has to have been one of the most odious offenders in the history of Christendom, because it almost totally destroyed an indigenous culture within a very short time. In their works The Psychology of the Methodist Revival, Madness in Society , and The Treveca Letters, Sydney Dimond, George Rosen, and J. Morgan Jones, respectively, paint a shocking picture of the ways in which Howell Harris, Daniel Rowland, and other leaders of the religious movement in Wales ca. 1735-40, whipped people up into emotional frenzies to the point of being capable of doing almost anything they were told to do. Recorded cases of markedly abnormal group and individual behavior abound, and lets keep in mind that those are only the documented reports that have survived over more than two hundred fifty years. Those reports become especially believable and troubling after one reads a passage in Ellis Wynnes earlier Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (1703; translated by Robert Davies as Visions of the Sleeping Bard , 1897), in which the author speaks of visions of people dancing on the hot pavement of Hell to the music of the crwth. Both the crwth and the pibgorn, due their associations with country dancing, often were brought to outdoor religious gatherings, broken or chopped to pieces, and burned after being declared implements of Satan. By ca. 1750-60, only a relatively small number of crythau (crwths) were left in scattered, remote locations. In the larger cities and towns, the violin eventually filled the void left by the crwth after having often escaped destruction due to its less rural, more academic associations. The telyn (harp), for the same reason, also fared reasonably well. By ca. 1850, after recurring waves of religious fervor, the crwth was all but extinct in practice, nearly wiped out in only a little over a century, along with the traditional dancing that it supported. According to a preserved oral account, the last of the old crythorion died in 1855.
AmeriCymru: You have mentioned what you call extinction in practice. What does that mean?
Jack: It simply means that the crwth stopped being played by anyone anywhere as far as can be determined. It does not mean that no specimens of the instrument survived, as simply extinct would. A small handful of instruments still survive, in most if not all cases without their more fragile original bows. Beginning in the early twentieth century, there was a revival of interest in playing the crwth, and a number of reconstructions and copies were made of instruments, as well as a few made from existing drawings. However, it wasnt until the late twentieth century that the revivalist players, drawing in many cases on musicological investigations, began changing from attempting to play the crwth like a viol or other salon instrument to playing it like the folk instrument it appears to have been. One could argue that the crwth now exists in practice for a second time, but the number of practitioners is tiny in comparison to what it once was, when there was at least one crwth in almost every village and when there were many adages in colloquial speech such as We are playing the crwth in its bag, meaning We are not giving her a fair chance, and An old crwth has a sweet voice, meaning He gets his way through flattery or Stop trying to flatter me! and My bows across the strings, meaning Im ready, and A crwth plays well on an empty stomach, but its player does not, a saying whose meaning is self-explanatory.
AmeriCymru: What happened to Celtic music in Wales?
Jack: You are correct in placing Celtic in quotation marks. As far as Celtic music in general is concerned, there is no universally accepted definition of Celtic music , so your question is somewhat difficult to answer. Also, the fact of there having been little if any ethnic purity anywhere on earth for many millennia, makes Celtic music arguably something of a specious term. Assuming the existence of music closely associated idiomatically with what are usually considered to be the Celtic regions, I would define Celtic music , in a way that is fairly broad yet not all-inclusive, as the stylistically distinctive music of the predominately Goidelic and Brythonic peoples of the European mainland, the British Isles, and the parts of the world to which large numbers of those peoples migrated, including but not limited to the American Southern Uplands, or Lower Appalachia. I make a point of excluding much of the modern popular music that is meant to sound Celtic, first because it has rarely if ever emerged within any of the cultures that I just cited, and also because it often consists of little more than stock motifs using anhemitonic pentatonic gamut segments - that is, scales containing five different letter-designated pitch classes and no half-steps, such as C-D-E-G-A-c. For the same reasons, I usually exclude most academic music that has Celtic allusions. I have heard some pieces that are very idiomatically Celtic, but I cannot call them truly Celtic music because they did not originate within a predominately Celtic culture. In other words, I draw a distinction between Celtic and idiomatically Celtic . Finally, I generally exclude much of what has been created in parts of the modern world by persons of Celtic ancestry. In some of those cases, that music may have a Celtic overlay (again, stock motifs and sometimes pentatonic underpinnings), but it usually lacks a full complement of distinctively Celtic traits, especially its melodic traits namely, tunes resulting from the interaction of the indigenous pentatonic scalar system and one of the structural norms (ballad tune, fiddle tune, lament, etc.) that produced melodies in their entireties. A ballad, for example, had its characteristic combination of scalar and morphological norms, as did other species. To make a long story short, the Scottish Lament for William Chisholm is representative of what could be called Celtic music, but Malcolm Arnolds S cottish Dances are not, except in the idiomatic sense. Likewise, Danny Boy, at least in its original form as played by the blind fiddler, could be called Celtic music, my Celtic Dreams, now in preparation, will be only idiomatically Celtic and Celtic by allusion, and a piece consisting of scarcely anything more than a ramble through one or more of the pentatonic gamut segments and perhaps a familiar stock motif or two is pseudo-Celtic and perhaps could even pass for Native American, Asian, sub-Saharan African, or African-American.
In comparison to much traditional Irish and Scottish music, as well as the transplanted Irish, Scottish, and Scots-Irish music of Lower Appalachia, the American Southern Piedmont (the lowlands between the Southern Uplands and the Atlantic coast), and other areas in the eastern part of North America, distinctively Celtic properties have been, with an occasional exception, generally in short supply in Welsh music for a long time. While the terribly destructive incursions of Evangelical Protestantism into Wales certainly did not help that situation, it would be unfair to lay all, most, or even very much of the blame at that doorstep. It seems that most of the distinctively Celtic properties had been missing from Welsh music for some time before the early to middle eighteenth century. Perhaps most strikingly, Welsh melodies found in early collections such as those of Playford have few pentatonic, or even incipiently pentatonic, properties. From more recent times, the great Welsh hymn tunes such as Hyfrydol, Cwm Rhondda, Bryn Calfaria, and Ebeneezer are heptatonic (seven-toned, major and minor scales such as C-D-E-F-G-A-B-c or A-B-C-D-E-F-G-a), not pentatonic, although the Irish hymn tune Slane, (Be Thou My Vision), from roughly the same period, is markedly pentatonic. Also, few Welsh melodies from the seventeenth century or later follow any of the established Celtic ballad-tune, dance-tune, or other morphological (melodic-contour) norms as closely as so many Scottish and Irish tunes do. As unpleasant as the likelihood, if not the probability, may be to some, most surviving Welsh music from prior to the eighteenth century is significantly less idiomatically Celtic than much Scottish and Irish music, and in many ways is closer to much English music from outside the West Country where, curiously, Celtic properties seem to have thrived until fairly recent times, at least if whats in the collections of Vaughan Williams, Sharp, and others is taken as indicative. Some of this disparity could have to do with the limited number of examples recorded in Wales by Welshmen in pre-twentieth-century times and most of the collections being the work of English auditors who may have corrected what they regarded as errors of scale and melody. However, I do not believe that all the difference can be thus explained away.
There also is evidence that there could have been incursions of non-Celtic idioms into the Welsh musical world perhaps as far back as the late Middle Ages. One document is particularly interesting. It consists of glosses, or inserted non-original material, in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, also known as British Museum Manuscript A dditional 14905 . The main body of the manuscript was a collection of etudes. The manuscript was later owned by Lewis Morris. He added some glosses that purportedly were copied from an older manuscript of un-cited date and origin.
Those glosses speak in very esoteric terms about what could have been a complex pentatonic scalar system, referring to the scales as keys and to notes that can be inserted into the characteristic minor thirds of the pentatonic gamut segments as recess notes. That discussion of keys seems to point toward what was, in the eighteenth century and probably even in the late sixteenth century, an old and established body of Celtic music theory and performance practice. The purported age of the information may be an exaggeration. Rather than belonging to the eleventh or twelfth century, it more likely belongs to the fourteenth century, when contact between Wales and Ireland, the likely source of the material, was more frequent. However, that also was the time when English and Continental incursions from the east and south would have been posing a threat to Celtic traditions, especially in Wales.
Prior to that time, musical knowledge was largely restricted to trained musicians and those in training, and it customarily was learned by memory, not written down. Threats from the east and south could have proven sufficient motivation for the limited written preservation of musical knowledge, although not enough to remove all esoteric terminology. The mention of recess notes could represent an awareness of how the seven-tone modes and scales of the Continent and England were making inroads into the formerly five-tone octave divisions of the Celtic world through the occurrences of additional tones within the characteristic minor-third intervals of the pentatonic system. Therefore the beginning of the end of distinctively Celtic music in Wales could date from near the end of the Middle Ages. Whether or not it did, idiomatically Celtic traits of scale and species-related contours clearly were far less common by the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Welsh music than they were in the music of Scotland and Ireland, both of which were more remote from southern England, where the centers of both culture and power were. If the rise of Evangelical Protestantism had anything to do with the disappearance of distinctively Celtic traits from traditional Welsh music, the effect probably was limited.
Concerning the matter of the pentatonic system, see my article titled Scale in Southern Appalachian Folksong: a Reexamination, College Music Symposium (1986), 77-92. An online abstract is available at http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/scl01.html.htm.
AmeriCymru: Two years ago we asked you if the Crwth could make a comeback and you replied that "I think it already has made a comeback.....". Have there been further signs of this over the last two years? Any further encouraging developments?
Jack: Although two years is not long enough to justify a firm declaration of significantly increased activity, there seems to be an increase in website discussions and articles that at least touch on the crwth. Due to health issues, Ive not been able to keep abreast of that as much as Id have liked to, but googling crwth brings up more results than it did two years ago. I cant really quantify an increase in interest, but I can conclude that there has been at least some. With the growth of the Internet, knowledge undoubtedly is spreading, and in some cases thats almost certain to yield an interest in learning to play the crwth, as well as becoming informed about its origins and history, not only via the Internet but also through printed studies, both early and more recent.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Jack: Once again, I thank everyone for their interest in my work, and I look forward to seeing and meeting as many of you as possible at the West Coast Eisteddfod.
Those who want to look at some of the sources I have used might be interested in my online bibliography of documents dealing in whole or in part with the crwth. Ive listed my own works first, but they are greatly outnumbered by the studies of others on whose shoulders I have stood in many instances. The URL of that web page is http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/cth04.html . Also, the abstract of my Masters thesis of 1973 is online at http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/cth01.html.htm
An Interview With Meilir Tomos, Welsh Singer Songwriter - Bourbon, Gravel and Cat Litter Trays
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-02-14
AmeriCymru: Hi Meilir, many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Lets start with what's new. You have a release due on Feb 21st entitled - 'Cellar Songs' . I know that a great many of our readers will be eager to hear more about this .
Meilir: Cellar Songs is my latest release and my second Ep that will eventually be part of a three Ep collection. It is a record of six songs, recorded over 4 days with producer Charlie Francis. Some of the songs were close to making it on to my first release Bydd Wych but were not quite ready in time. I think this has ended up being the way it should have been, I am still very proud of Bydd Wych as a piece of musical work but I think I have made some progressions as a writer & performer with Cellar Songs. It sounds like a Meilir record if you will, but it is also different from Bydd Wych, after all there is no point making the same record again. I think the new Ep Cellar Songs is a unique record in today's music environment because I am not trying to follow any musical trend. I am just making music because it's what I love to do. Creating songs with meaning and feeling.
AmeriCymru: Can you explain the significance of the title?
Meilir: I have a small cellar or basement studio at my home were I write most of my music, all of the songs that make up Cellar Songs were composed in this room so this is how the title came to be.
AmeriCymru: I am referring to your profile on AmeriCymru here. Why owls and why Tequila and Bourbon?
Meilir: I have been fond of owls since I can remember, as well as birds in general and all things nature, this resulted in small owl ornaments becoming a regular gift, i now have hundreds of them. The booze goes like this, when I was 16 my family moved to a small pub in North Wales, and as I was at a curious age it was obvious that the first time my parents left me home alone I was going to experiment with the vast amount of alcohol to hand. I stated with the obvious... at the pumps with the lager and bitter and was amazed at the horrid taste, this is not a poor reflection on the pub I just did not like the taste, I also doubt many do. With Bourbon there was a different story I love it and this is my drink of choice, if anyone ever wants to buy me a drink this would be a good place to start. I was introduced to Tequila at Glastonbury Festival by a good friend who plays in a band called Mother of Six, this drink is one of my weaknesses. Having said all this on occasion I can be persuaded to flirt with other drinks.
AmeriCymru: Your song 'Bydd Wych' is a firm favorite with many AmeriCymru members. Care to tell us more about it? How it came to be written?
Meilir: Bydd Wych (Be Great or Be as Good as you can) is a song that came into existence over a long time and in different ways. I first became aware of the saying Bydd Wych after a long conversation with a good friend of mine who is the singer with Mother of Six. It was him who told me of the saying & how it was maybe used before old battles by the Welsh as a last rally of the troops before engaging in battle. At the time I was writing my debut Ep and thought that it would make a good title for the Ep. Over time I wanted the opening song to be a song called Bydd Wych, I had a song that was a folk song played on the guitar with the lyrics that make up the chorus as the song is today but the song was not right, it needed to have more of an impact and be more unique. I found a thumb piano at Glastonbury festival, and when I returned home there was one pattern that I kept playing on the thumb piano and the song was written quite quickly from then on around this pattern.
AmeriCymru: I have to ask...how did you hit upon the idea of using a cat litter tray filled with gravel for percussion on this track?
Meilir: I am always looking for ways to make thinks interesting for myself & the audience. I am very interested in creating sounds from sources that might not be as conventional as people expect. The gravel idea is something I had in my mind for a long time before I managed to experiment with it. I eventually realized that I could get my hands on some gravel from an ex place of employment, lets just say that it was in abundance under my feet during cigarette breaks, I would amuse myself by making rhythmic patterns on the gravel whilst wishing I didn't have to go back to work. I filled a bag full of gravel one day and took it home, to my surprise the results were amazing the sounds that you can make work very well. But I must admit there have been more failed experiments that successes but I love the idea of using such organic earthy elements to the music.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little more about 'Less Wrong'? What inspired it?
Meilir: Less Wrong comes in two parts, to be honest with you I always wondered how songs that were in two parts came to be before I wrote a two part song myself. The song was split into two parts when I had two songs developing from the same original idea. I don't like to elaborate to much on the meaning of songs that I write as they are mostly very personal & I do attempt to be a little obscure with some lyrics. I suppose that the inspiration for Less Wrong comes from different perspectives of hope & faith in part 1 & how this can go wrong in part 2.
I would not want to say more than that really or I think I would be giving far to much away. I like it when a listener can create their own narrative and imagery to a piece of music, I don't like it when everything is to obvious.
AmeriCymru: Where can our readers go to get your music online?
Meilir: To stay updated on whats going on here is facebook.com/meilir.tomos & myspace.com/meilirmusic . I sometimes post musical ideas & treats at soundcloud.com/meilirmusic You can purchase Bydd Wych at iTunes as physical copies are sold out and listen to it on Spotify. Cellar Songs will be available from spillersrecords.com & you can have it sent to America from here!!!
AmeriCymru: What's next for Meilir Tomos?
Meilir: I will be performing lots of live shows... I am planning a small tour of chapels and churches to promote the release of Cellar Songs information on this will be released soon and I will be performing at a few select festivals over the summer. I am writing material for the third Ep that I hope will be ready for release by November of this year. I have recently had my music used for a film Masterpiece by young Welsh filmmaker Andrew C. Tanner, I would love to get involved in more films. scoring music is something I am going to look into doing more. So it's more of the same but hopefully to a wider audience, It's not an easy climate for independent creative musicians but I love what I do and would not change it for anything.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Meilir: Order your copy of Cellar Songs from spillersrecords.com from Monday 21st February... there it is the hard sell, thank you in advance if you do get a copy. With any luck I might get the chance to come and play over in America some time soon see you then...
Bydd Wych
AmeriCymru: Can you explain to our readers what the name 'Swci Boscawen' means?Mared: Swci means tame lamb in welsh.Something rather cutesy.Boscawen is a wild flower and also a place in Cornwall.I thought they sounded nice together and the name just stuck.
AmeriCymru: How long have you been involved in the Welsh music scene?
Mared: 14 years! I started in bands when I was 12 and kept it going amazingly! I haven't a clue how...
AmeriCymru: You have performed in he US before. Care to tell us a little about that? Do you have any plans for future visits?
Mared: New York has always been a place I go frequently to play gigs,do some filming or just visit friends.It's been great to me and I always try and go at least twice a year although I havent been for a lot longer now.The pangs are indeed coming back.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little more about your new label Tarw du?
Mared: It is absolutely fabulous.Gruff Meredith who runs it has worked so hard to make it professional and slick.We're lacking good solid welsh music labels today and I really hope Tarw Du does really well.It deserves to.No longer will you have to walk into a little welsh shop and talk family gossip before you can purchase a Swci cd!
AmeriCymru: I know its an overworked question but who would you describe as your main musical influences? Who are you listening to currently?
Mared: Im a hardcore Blondie fan.And I am obsessed with pop music at the moment.But all in all,anything floats my boat.
AmeriCymru: What are some of your favorite places and must see/experience things in Wales?
Mared: West Wales is my part and I don't think you can beat it for looks.There's something maddening about Wales where you spend lots of time wanting to get the hell away from it but the moment you do the "hiraeth" kicks in and all you want is to be there! Oh and the people,I like how you can't get away with anything because you will be put in you place faster than lightning.
AmeriCymru: 'Adar y Nefoedd' is an extremely moving and powerful ballad. Can you tell us what inspired it?
Mared: It's a song about a fair few people that I have known or known of that are no longer with us.I got frustrated with people being forgotten so I wanted to try and write something that at least was a nice tribute.It came out all right I think!
AmeriCymru: Tell us about your new Super Single and how it came about
Mared: Music has been stale lately and I wanted to brighten 2010 up with some pure,unapologising pop.It's my secret bikini hit that I want people in Ibiza to go mental to!
AmeriCymru: What's next for 'Swci Boscawen'?
Mared: Recovery unfortunately.6 days ago I was diagnosed with cancer so I have to get through this particularly difficult time with some sort of dignity when all I want to do is gig and have fun!
AmeriCymru: Where can people go to download or purchase your songs?
Mared: Amazon,I tunes,etc i think! give google a little click...
AmeriCymru: Any further message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Mared: Just keep the welshness up.The world is filled with us and it's pretty awesome how we get around isnt it?
Hope everyone enjoys the Portland Eisteddfod and thanks for the interview!
Diolch Ceri,
Mared.
Darren Parry is a singer/songwriter from Dowlais In Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. He has toured the US extensively and has just released a new single - "Just The Mention Of Your Name" . He spoke to AmeriCymru about his life and career:-
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Americymru: When did you first become aware that you were intent on a musical career? Darren: I realised this when I started writing songs seriously at around the age of 18. I'd grown up listening to my parents (and especially my mother) playing old 'Motown' ('Four Tops', Diana Ross, 'Temptations', Jimmy Ruffin etc.)records, and lots of 'Free', 'Carpenters', Kenny Rogers and so on and thought, "hmmmm... I'd like to sing and write songs like that". I was always a fan of the big sorta raspy voices, e.g. Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, Michael McDonald, Richard Marx, Joe Lynn Turner, David Coverdale, Bonnie Tyler, Michael Bolton etc. and was always amazed (and still am) by the power and emotion that the human voice can express...what an instrument when used effectively! Americymru: You are from Dowlais in Merthyr Tydfil. Care to tell our American readers a little about the area? Darren: I'm originally from a small village called Troedyrhiw in Merthyr Tydfil and have lived in various areas of Merthyr Tydfil (and a few yrs in Swansea) but now reside in Dowlais. Dowlais, like many areas in Merthyr Tydfil is an old mining village as Merthyr Tydfil was renowned in the 1800's for making iron (exported all over the world) and coal. Merthyr was situated close to reserves of iron ore, coal, limestone and water, making it an ideal site for ironworks. Small-scale iron working and coal mining had been carried out at some places in South Wales since the Tudor period, but in the wake of the Industrial revolution the demand for iron led to the rapid expansion of Merthyr's iron operations. The Dowlais Ironworks was founded by what would become the Dowlais Iron Company in 1759, making it the first major works in the area. It was followed in 1765 by the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The Plymouth ironworks were initially in the same ownership as Cyfarthfa, but passed after the death of Anthony Bacon to Richard Hill in 1788. The fourth ironworks was Penydarren built by Francis Homfray and Samuel Homfray after 1784. The demand for iron was fuelled by the Royal Navy, who needed cannons for their ships, and later by the railways. In 1802, Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness cannons being made! Americymru: How would you describe your musical style? What kind of material are you most comfortable performing? Darren: My musical style varies as I've written over 150 songs in lots of genres but mainly my music is Adult Contemporary(AC)/Pop/Rock. Americymru: Do you have a regular backing band? Can you tell us something about the musicians you perform with or other performers you have met? Darren: Yes I have a small band comprising of myself (lead vocals/keyboard and or acoustic guitar), Juan Lozano (backing vocals/keyboard/acoustic guitar) Robert Devereux (backing vocals/lead guitar)and sometimes Steve Sims (lead guitar). I'm very lucky that these guys are both superb musicians and my friends. Very often the only payment they need for recording (they play on my albums)and playing gigs is usually I buy them a curry...well worth a few Kema Nans and Chicken Tikka Masala's !!!! Other performers I've met/performed with include - Michael Bolton, Michael Ball, Bryn Terfel, 'The Sweet Inspirations' (Elvis' original female backing singers), DJ Fontana (Elvis' original drummer), 'Scouting For Girls', 'Goldie Lookin' Chain', Peter Karrie, Donny Osmond, Brian Conley, Max Boyce among others. Americymru: We learn from your website that you performed at Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones' wedding. What are your memories of that occasion? Darren: Well I need to clarify this, bit of a strange story! I was on a 3 month, 45 date USA tour with ' The Black Mountain Male Chorus Of Wales' ( which is a 20 man all male choir - check them out on MySpace ) in the year 2000. We were performing near Los Angeles and got a call asking if we'd like to sing in MD's and CZJ's wedding! The connection was that our tour manager, Adrian Metcalfe was in school with CZJ's brother in Swansea I believe. Of course, we were very honoured and said yes! The problem was the wedding if I remember was in the East Coast (New York) and it was impossible to break our contract of performing our booked concerts on the West Coast to fly over. Unfortunatley due to this we had to pass and another Welsh choir sang instead. Doh!!!!!! ...but at least we were the first choice! Americymru: What can you tell us about your current release - "Just The Mention Of Your Name"? Darren: It is a melodic AC pop ballad that is my latest song. It is available for commercial download on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and Napster. It is a single from my forthcoming EP entitled..."That Feeling" that will feature songs co-written with 'Dazzle Music' (who's written for/had songs recorded by Charlotte Church).
Americymru: Where can our readers go to hear/download your music? Darren: http://www.darrenparry.com http://www.myspace.com/darrenparrymusic Americymru: You recently toured the US with the Black Mountain Male Chorus. Care to tell us a bit more about the tour? Darren: This was the second large tour I've done of the States with Black Mountain (BM). The latest tour was in Jan/Feb 2008 and we did 22 concerts. We started in Chicago then went to, wait for it, deep breathe... Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico before finishing off in LA. We performed in venues for up to 2000 people and were fortunate to get fantastic, enthusiastic crowds every night. BM has now completed over 200(I've done around 70 of these)concerts in the US over the past 14 yrs or so and have a good fan base who are keen to hear male voices sing our repertoire of Welsh hymns, pop songs, rugby influenced songs, folk songs, opera and Celtic music.
Americymru: Any plans to visit the States again in the near future? Darren: I've just signed a licensing deal with a company called 'Rock Talk Music', based in LA, California so who knows? I may be coming there in 2010. I've now been lucky enough to have visited around 40 of the 50 US States in the last 10 yrs and I always look forward to coming there! Americymru: Any final message for the members and readers of Americymru? Darren: I'm a member and I'm very glad to see the American and Welsh links being proliferated with a site like Americymru...keep up the excellent work Buy the new single here:- http://www.amazon.com/Darren-Parry/dp/B002AVTMQA |
Cor Godre'r Aran is based in the village of Llanuwchllyn near Bala in North Wales. They will be appearing at next year's North American Festival of Wales in Portland Oregon. Americymru spoke to Eirian Owen, the choir's Musical Director about the choir and their forthcoming visit. More details about NAFOW 2010 can be found HERE. The Concert is on Saturday 4th September between 7 and 10 pm at the Doubletree Hotel, Lloyd Center, Portland. Tickets have been discounted to $20 and are available in the hotel foyer before the performance from 5 pm onwards. Following the concert the choir will be at the pub night in the bar at the Doubletree.
Americymru: The Choir will be performing at the 2010 North American Festival of Wales in Portland, Oregon. Can you tell us how this came about? Have you ever been to Portland?
Eirian: I believe that the invitation to perform in the 2010 North American Festival of Wales came through a member of our choir who has contact with an official of the Festival. Cr Godrer Aran previously visited Portland in 1971 and in 1974. I was, in 1971, newly married and the choirs tour to USA and Canada was my honeymoon shared with, of course, my husband - and 25 other men! A diary of that trip shows that we stayed overnight at the Royal Inn (is it still there?) , that the concert was held in a chapel and that we arranged an extra concert for the following afternoon because many people were unable to get tickets for the previous night. The chapel was full to capacity on both occasions. My 1974 diary tells that I was very impressed with the shops in the Lloyd Centre and that I decided not to go ice skating with some of our group for fear of breaking an arm and being unable to play the piano. I was at that time the choirs accompanist and would have faced the death penalty or worse had I sabotaged the tour by breaking a finger or arm.
Americymru: When was the choir founded? Can you tell us something about its history?
Eirian: The choir was formed in 1949, primarily to compete at the National Eisteddfod which was, that year, held in Dolgellau. It was at that time a penillion singing/ cerdd dant group of about 20 young men from the village of Llanuwchllyn. The conductor was Tom Jones and the choir soon gained a strong reputation as one of the chief exponents of this traditional Welsh genre. Tom Jones retired in 1975 and I was chosen as the new conductor/ music director. I had recently graduated in music and had taken up a teaching post at a local high school. I continued along the same path that Tom Jones had established but, I soon began to feel that penillion singing lacked the opportunity for musical and vocal development and that the choir had the potential to succeed in other genres. Therefore, a gradual change of direction took place as I included more and more male choir repertoire in our programmes. Nowadays, Cr Godrer Aran concentrates entirely on the male choir repertoire.
Americymru: What is your repertorie? Is there a particular piece that you all enjoy performing more than others? Do you have a signature piece or one that's more often requested by audiences?
Eirian: We sing a varied repertoire, from opera to musicals, part-songs, motets, popular music, hymn tunes. One of the favourites in Wales at the moment is Eric Jones Y Tangnefeddwyr . Audiences in the UK nowadays seem to appreciate a variety of male choir repertoire although, old favourites, such as Myfanwy are probably not performed as often.
Americymru: You have toured all over the world ( Scotland, Ireland , Portugal , Canada / U.S.A., Australia , New Zealand, Tasmania, Hong Kong , Singapore and Patagonia ) What are your most memorable experiences whilst on tour? Is there any one performance that you are particularly proud of?
Eirian: Every tour has its special memories. Singing to the inmates in a prison in New Zealand was an emotionally charged occasion; singing as we marched down a street during a St Patricks day parade in Ireland was fun. Performing in Patagonia felt like singing in rural Wales as there were so many members of the audiences who spoke Welsh and the warmth of their welcome was unforgettable. Australia and New Zealand provided us with our biggest audiences we regularly performed to 2000 people. I remember being overwhelmed by the emotion of one of those concerts and coming off the platform crying! Whilst we were in Portugal, the whole choir was invited to the British Ambassadors residence for drinks and canaps one Sunday; his staff were rushed off their feet carrying food and drink , as the vultures from Wales gobbled everything down as soon as it appeared. We did sing for our food , though......! We have not visited the USA and Canada since the early 70s. We were then totally inexperienced, naive and very wet behind the ears. The food was different, cars were as big as buses and drove on the wrong side of the road, the buildings touched the clouds, rivers were as wide as lakes , we jay-walked without a care and gazed in awe at all those magnificent sights.
Americymru: The choir has won prizes at the National and Llangollen Eisteddfoddau. Care to tell us a little about that?
Eirian: Winning at these Eisteddfodau is always a thrill. Choirs come to Llangollen from all over the world and we never know who the opposition might be until just before the Eisteddfod. There is a feeling of camaraderie between choirs at Llangollen each one is supportive of the other. I believe that competition brings out the best in a choir.
Americymru: The choir won the BBC Radio Cymru competition for Male Voice Choirs. Can you tell us something about the competition and your experience of it?
Eirian: This competition ran over several months . There were several rounds , each recorded before hand and one choir would be eliminated every week. Three choirs reached the final round which was a live performance before an audience.
Americymru: The choir is based in Llanuwchlyn near Bala. Can you tell a little about the area?
Eirian: Llanuwchllyn is a village of about 700 inhabitants , almost all of them Welsh speakers. Many of the families have lived in the area for generations. There are, amongst the members of Cr Godrer Aran, sets of brothers, fathers and sons, cousins, uncles and nephews. The son, grandson and great-grandson of the founder, Tom Jones, are present members of the choir. Llanuwchllyn and the surrounding area (Penllyn) is rich in heritage and culture and is a stronghold of the Welsh language. The area is rural and is favoured by tourists who come to enjoy the beauty of Bala Lake and the peace of the surrounding mountains and valleys.
Americymru: How does someone join the choir, what is your selection process? What kind of commitment do your choir members make, what's expected of them?
Eirian: Membership is by invitation and all prospective members go through a very informal audition . Quality of voice is the only criteria the ability to read music is a bonus, not a necessity. Members are then expected to attend weekly rehearsals and concerts regularly. There is an average of 2 concerts a month. There is, generally, no problem with commitment , although I occasionally have to remind individuals of their obligation to the choir!
Americymru: Where can people purchase your music?
Eirian: Our CDs are available online through Sain. Our latest CD, Cofio is available through the choirs website www.corgodreraran.og.uk
Americymru: Do you have any final comments for the readers and members of Americymru?
Eirian: We look forward to meeting you all. Our members range in age from 26-70 ; were all young at heart and love going places and meeting people.
Interview by: Ceri Shaw
Email: americymru@gmail.com
