St David's Day

[Gordon]

A great hymn tune, tenors with their heads well back, giving it large

How's the tenors in Dowlais?

[amateur51]

How's the tenors in Dowlais?

The locals were from Rhosllanerchrugog

[Gordon]

Too true.

i was thinking perhaps that Verdi qualified to write music for Wales by having a half Welsh great uncle, or something.....

Well yes he's adescendant of a mercenary Welsh archer, David Jones, who settled in Genoa [no, never seen her before] before moving on and he was known as Short David [because he was little you see]. Short in welsh is "byr" corrupted phonetically to "ber" or "ver". And of course all welsh men are called David, or Dai, hence ver + dai = verd[a]i! see, simples!!

[Gordon]

The locals were from Rhosllanerchrugog

and still going - well not all of them - a school mate of mine still sings with them. As good as any of that lot from down South any day!!

[Simon B]

What's wrong with Owain's Dad's oratorio St David then, he's done it before for the BBC on March 1st!!

Well, mostly that these days probably no-one much would turn up - which is not a judgement on the piece itself (I give the Chandos recording a spin from time-to-time - pleasant if slightly innocuous). Meanwhile, with the Verdi, they've filled SDH - a rare event indeed, though the St David's Day concerts tend to do a lot better than most. Such are the realities of concert promotion outside London.

It's been so consistently cold and gloomy recently that the only daffodils I've seen until today have been coming out of shops rather than the actual ground!

[AjAjAjH]

[QUOTE=Richard Tarleton;267627] "Mifanwy"

I aranged for a Male Voice Choir to give a concert for one of Mrs AjAjAjH's special birthdays. (I'm too much of a gentleman to say which.) She asked that they should sing 'Myfanwy' for her as it was a particular favourite with a super tune. It was only then that I paid special attention to the words. A truly sad, sad love song..

Hapus Dewi Sant

[Gordon]

It's been so consistently cold and gloomy recently that the only daffodils I've seen until today have been coming out of shops rather than the actual ground!

The daffs around here in the hedgerows have been out at least 10 days!!

Agreed about the Hughes St David, "innocuous" indeed but not unpleasant. I had a BBC recording of it made by Owain way back. Also agreed that it is not a crowd puller - but it is a St David's concert!!

[Padraig]

Not too late to wish all A Happy St David'd Day, I hope. I'll give you a song as well. I won't sing it now, but a long time ago as a boy I moved primary school. My new teacher welcomed me by having a round of songs, where boys got up and sang a song. My turn came eventually and I gave them a rousing burst, to their and my amazement, of Land of My Fathers. All together now....Wales! Wales!......

[Simon B]

The daffs around here in the hedgerows have been out at least 10 days!!!

Well, our daffs might be more reticent than yours this year, but were they given to singing they'd have a much better national anthem to belt out - as evidenced at the end of this evening's concert!

[Gordon]

Not too late to wish all A Happy St David'd Day, I hope. I'll give you a song as well. I won't sing it now, but a long time ago as a boy I moved primary school. My new teacher welcomed me by having a round of songs, where boys got up and sang a song. My turn came eventually and I gave them a rousing burst, to their and my amazement, of Land of My Fathers. All together now....Wales! Wales!......

Croeso cynnes Padraig a dioch yn fawr am eich dymuniad gwyliedig!! Rhaid bod dipyn o Gwyddel yn eich teulu!!

Is there any way to post audio extracts/clips on this forum!?!? If so we can get a rendition from you any time you're ready. In Welsh of course

[Richard J.]

Agreed about the Hughes St David, "innocuous" indeed but not unpleasant.

But back to the actual St David's Day concert, if we may. I thought it was a splendid performance of the Verdi Requiem, with OAH driving it along with pace and tension, but without the "artificial" tempo changes of so many conductors. It reminded me of my favourite Solti recording from the 1960s. Of the soloists, I particularly liked the tenor John Pierce's full and warm tone. Rather better than an "innocuous but not unpleasant" native Welsh work, IMHO.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Part of an ocuous and pleasant native Welsh work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhLanENO88

[Gordon]

Part of an ocuous and pleasant native Welsh work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhLanENO88

Excellent fhg!! Daniel Jones' symphonies are well worth a listen as are his Quartets, some of which are quite dark.

[JFLL]

['Aberystwyth' by Joseph Parry ...] A great hymn tune, tenors with their heads well back, giving it large

There’s a wonderful descant in the last-but-one line (‘Safe into the haven guide’) which always brings out the goose-pimples in me. The hymn was sung at my father’s funeral, and in the congregation was a tenor by the name of Jack Humphreys (an ex-chorister of Lichfield Cathedral, I think -- must have had Welsh blood) who did the honours with that descant.

[Gordon]

There’s a wonderful descant in the last-but-one line (‘Safe into the haven guide’) which always brings out the goose-pimples in me. The hymn was sung at my father’s funeral, and in the congregation was a tenor by the name of Jack Humphreys (an ex-chorister of Lichfield Cathedral, I think -- must have had Welsh blood) who did the honours with that descant.

That hymn was one of many on 2 LPs recorded by Delyse in the Albert Hall in 1963 and again in 1965. 6,500 voices giving vent to those great hymns makes a record of a tradition that is dying with the decline in the chapels etc. I still have and treasure those LPs and I get the goosepimples with any of those hymns that I learned as child standing beside my father who had a fine tenor voice [my singing voice is useless!!]. The one that does it for me is Cwm Rhondda when, as tradition requires, the last verse/chorus is repeated with extra vim until there is concensus that enough is enough. The tenor descant in that one is good too. Some of those descants are of course unwritten but made up, as it were, by the singers. The hwyl in such Gymanfa Ganu events is palpable.

One favourite not on those LPs is this, a great favourite of my Dad's and sung at his funeral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gw7uqy9-9Y

Haven't found a good sung one yet [there are some iffy ones - you really need a large congregation for those choruses] but you'll get the repeat chorus effect and the potential for a hwyl anyway.