The Land of Song

I was delighted to discover a few Welsh musical traditions that were new to me in Cardiff. Dr Rhiannon Ifans who is the current secretary of the Welsh Folk Song Society and lecturer in Welsh at the University of Wales, Lampeter, is also championing the Welsh carol-singing tradition of 'Plygain'.

According to the National Museum of Wales' article on the topic, Plygain was a pre-Reformation survival of choral worship which took place in the early hours of Christmas Morning, perhaps even the old Midnight Mass.

So with her friends from the Folk Song Society, Rhiannon treated us to a few examples in the Aberdare Hall, just round the corner from Cardiff University as part of the entertainment for the Ballad Conference.



Have a listen to the well and truly glorious Welsh singing we were treated to! The podcaster lists the tracks and you simply play them like you would on a CD player.

We also had hymns which are also featured here. Singing has always been a part of religious worship from the days of King David who wrote his psalms to express his fears, wants and adoration for God. The Plygain singers come to remember the nativity, but also would have praised Mary and the Saints in earlier days as Rhiannon told me. I was gobsmacked to think that Wales was once Catholic! I suppose I am so used to thinking of it as Celtic, then evangelical, that I never imagined about what happened in between!!

Anyway - this wonderful tradition was another way of preserving the language in the face of all the 'imperialism' which also affected the Gaels. Welsh being a Celtic tongue shared its origin with Gaelic, Irish, Manx, although went down the P-Celtic route which the 'Picts' of NE Scotland and Lothian spoke, or at least they did eventually. There are theorists who believe P-Celtic was the result of those tribes influencing the descendants of the neolithic farmers who could have spoken a non-indo european tongue. Anyway - Welsh, though nothing like Gaelic, sounds beautiful when sung!

The hymns are a miscellany sung by the Bute Babes, from Cardiff Castle. We went there for a banquet on our last night and were blown away by the talent of these young folk who are all students and professional singers that work there in their spare time. You can hear some of us belting out Cym Rhondda when they get to it. The words were written by William Williams in 1745!! That wonderful rousing tune which suits both chapel and rugby parks wasn't with us til 1907, composed by John Hughes of Pontypridd.

Here are the words in Welsh:

Arglwydd, arwain trwy'r anialwch,
Fi bererin gwael ei wedd,
Nad oes ynof nerth na bywyd
Fel yn gorwedd yn y bedd
Hollalluog, Hollalluog
Ydyw'r Un a'm cwyd i'r lan.

2. Colofn dân rho'r nos i'm harwain,
A rho'r golofn niwl y dydd;
Dal fi pan bwy'n teithio'r manau
Geirwon yn fy ffordd y sydd
Rho i mi fanna, rho i mi fanna,
Fel na bwyf yn llwfrhau.

3. Agor y ffynhonnau melus
'N tarddu i maes o'r Graig y sydd;
Colofn dan rho'r nos i'm harwain,
A rho golofn niwl y dydd;
Rho i mi fanna, rho i mi fanna,
Fel na bwyf yn llwfwrhau.

4. Pan bwy’n myned trwy’r Iorddonen
Angeu creulon yn ei rym,
Ti est trwyddi gynt dy hunan,
P'am yr ofnaf bellach ddim?
Buddugoliaeth, buddugoliaeth,
Gwna imi waeddi yn y llif!

5. Ymddiriedaf yn dy allu,
Mawr yw’r gwaith a wnest erioed
Ti gest angau, ti get uffern,
Ti gest Satan dan dy droed
Pen Calfaria, pen Calfaria,
Nac aed hwnw byth o'm cof.

See you at Cardiff Park! ;-)