Welsh Xmas Carols

Subject: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: Chris in Portland
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 12:18 AM

This is sort of a follow up to the great thread that was going on tonic sol-fa.

The organist of our little Welsh church gave me her copy of Ieuan Gwyllt's 1873 or so sol-ffa hymnal, "Cerddor Y Tonic Sol-ffa." There is no front page, so there is no clear evidence of the date of publication, but there is a lot on this book in Google books. It includes what seem like some nice Christmas hymns, "Pa Fwyn Beroriath Glwywaf Draw?';"Pwy Yw'r Baban Egwan;" "Yma Wrth Y Preseb," but Mr. Google strikes out on all three.   
Any information on these hymns would be appreciated. I'm working on our Lessons and Carols program for December and am hoping to add some Welsh carols.
Hoping that more Welsh hymnals will be get on Google books - really amazing what is there now in Welsh. I found a poem that my grandfather wrote in Welsh for the Chicago Welsh Hebron Church in 1906!! Thanks to Mr. Google for that!
Chris in Portland

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 04:10 AM

Chris, are you familiar with the Plygain tradition? Here are some links:

some background

A new album of Plygain carols

Dr Rhiannon Ifans's Plygain Carols book

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 10:20 AM

Hello- I have found several Welsh"carols"
The best known of course is Nos Galan or Deck the Hall which is actually a New Year's celebration song, originally a harp tune

Others from the standard hymnals
Watchman Tell us of the Night (Aberystwyth)
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus ((Hyfrydol- Rowland Huw Pritchard)
Poverty (All poor men and humble)K.E Roberts / Dr Caradog Roberts
Welsh Carol (Awake were they only)K.E Roberts / Dr Caradog Roberts

hope this helps
julia

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: Artful Codger
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 01:59 AM

Doing a simple search here turns up some others (ignoring the ones with familiar English versions, like Deck the Halls):

Hosanna Fawr (Bethlehem):
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=125538
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UyU8Z2FK_s

Wel, dyma'r borau gorau i gyd: New Oxford Book of Carols, #166 (p. 477)


The Welsh for the Poverty carol ("All poor men and humble") is "O deued pob Cristion" (Oh come all Christians). English words (still copyrighted) can be found in this thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=107441
Welsh lyrics and another singable translation may be found here:
http://www.angelfire.com/in/gillionhome/Worship/Emynau/ODeued.html


On YouTube you can find some more, like:

Tua Bethlehem Dref (Come from ev'ry land):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsjCwTOuPhM

Hwiangerdd Mair (Mary's Lullaby) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMH_NAu9czk

Draw Tua Bethlehem (Far Over Bethlehem):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP6WJ_JfQWo

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 06:58 AM

I like the tune Welch/Welsh first recorded in Wesley's 1742 "..Tunes...commonly sung at the Foundery" that comes across to me as a folk-tune.

http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Welsh_%28Come_thou_long_expected_Jesus%29_%28Anonymous%29

The Hymn Tune Index says:

Probably based on a traditional Welsh carol or other popular tune.

http://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/CitationName.asp?B2=Find+Citations&R1=no&R2=no&R3=close&box1=ON&box2=ON&box3=ON

I'd love to know what the original Welsh words were !

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: Chris in Portland
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 08:25 PM

Tim -- It looks like Hyfrydol is the tune usually used now for Wesley's words. I have Protheroe's 1918 hymnal, he uses the tune, Gaerwen, but then uses Ann Griffith's unrelated words, Rhyfedd, rhyfedd gan angylion, for the Welsh. In the US, we don't now sing any of Wesley's words to Hyfrydol. So, it look like the Welsh never got around to paraphrasing Wesley's words into Welsh. But maybe someone else can help on this.

My primary interest is finding carols that I can do on guitar, so I'm not looking for anything too heavy. And especially anything recent with a nice folky flavor.

Thanks for all the help I got on this from all the good people here, as always,
Nadolig llawen yn gynnar iawn, Chris

Subject: RE: Welsh Xmas Carols
From: Artful Codger
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 10:20 PM

The tune Hyfrydol is not the one on the page Tim referenced; Hyfrydol wasn't composed until much later (1844). The older tune was hypothesized to have a Welsh origin as well, though in poking about I didn't find any Welsh connection mentioned elsewhere for the hymn apart from Hyfrydol.