Mr Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters,
You may or may not know that I come from Wales, in the United Kingdom. It’s a nation with its own identity and proud history despite being part of the UK and it’s also known as the Land of Song. I was once asked “Is it true that Wales is the land of song and, if so, why?” I realised that I couldn’t answer very well. I mumbled something about yes, Welsh people do like singing and music (but don’t all peoples) and ‘well, it must have something to do with chapels and singing hymns’. This led me to think that I really should investigate why Wales is so well known as the land of song.
For a country of 3 million people, we have a few well-known performers, you may have heard of Tom Jones[i], Shirley Bassey (who sang Goldfinger and Big Spender), Mary Hopkin (who sang Those Were the Days) or the opera singers Bryn Terfel and Catherine Jenkins. We have very many choirs and probably the highest concentration of male voice choirs in the world.
Poetry, of course, is also very important to Welsh people. It’s believed that early poets used to sing their own poems. Giraldus Cambrensis– Gerald of Wales– writing during the twelfth century, said of Welsh people: “In their musical concerts they do not sing in unison like the inhabitants of other countries, but in many different parts (…) and what is still more wonderful, the children, even from their infancy, sing in the same manner.”. So here we have the first indication that Welsh people were good singers even in the 12th Century. However, the expression ‘land of song’ comes from the 19th Century.
What were the elements that led to Welsh people becoming so passionate about singing during the 19th Century? I believe there are three main reasons for the fostering of interest in singing during this time. The first is the non-conformist chapels. Non-conformists were committed to temperance and it was believed that chapel singing and regular choir practice would keep people busy and out of the way of the demon drink.
(click on watch on You Tube)
It’s quite ironic now to note that Welsh people’s love affair with hymns/religious songs means that old temperance songs are regularly sung in pubs sometimes without the singers even being aware of the original purpose of the hymn. [ii] In fact, the ‘hwyl’ or fervour which was said to be found in chapels is now more likely to be found in the singing of spectators at rugby games – rugby being the other activity for which Wales is famous. It is alleged that the singing of Welsh spectators is worth six points against the opposing team. Some rugby supporters might conclude from this that today’s singing is not as good as it was in the 1970s.
In addition to normal chapel services and choir practice, singing festivals called ‘cymanfa ganu’ and choir competitions were extremely popular. The teaching of tonic solf-fa (the ‘movable do’ system using do, re, mi etc. instead of staff notation) at schools and Sunday schools (attended also by adults), greatly helped chapel congregations and choirs to sing by sight, without each member having to learn to read musical notation.
The second element to be considered is industry and its role in fostering male voice choirs. Many of the men’s choirs grew around coal mines, steelworks or slate mines, of which there were very many in 19th Century Wales.[iii] Almost all of these works have closed now and unfortunately members of male voice choirs tend to be older. However, a choir composed entirely of younger men recently won a UK-wide choir competition (the choir that came second was also from Wales, incidentally). Their aim is to show that being in a choir is cool. They even have a name that makes them sound more like a boy band than a choir – Only Men Aloud. They sing old traditional songs such as the hymn ‘Bread of Heaven/Cwm Rhondda,’ which is hugely popular in chapels and in rugby grounds alike, but with a modern twist. Perhaps there is hope for the future after all.
The third element, particularly for the 20% of the population who speak Welsh, the native Celtic language, is the eisteddfod tradition. Eisteddfods are competitions and festivals of music and literature. Many Welsh singers including baritone Bryn Terfel and tenor Rhydian Roberts, the latter having come to fame during a television singing contest, learnt to sing in public by participating and being judged at eisteddfods.
The tradition of the eisteddfod goes back centuries but it was again during the 19th century that they were revived and became hugely popular. Singing competitions at the eisteddfod include classical music, arias and hymns of course but also Welsh folk music and a particular form of music unique to Wales called ‘cerdd dant’. ‘Cerdd dant goes back many centuries and consists of singing to the accompaniment of the harp in a way that gives the most emphasis to the words and the poetry, particularly poetry in strict metre characterised by the use of alliteration[iv]. The interesting thing is that the harpist plays a melody and the singer sings a counter melody. Originally the counter-melody had to be improvised but is now usually pre-arranged. The result is beautiful and distinctive music.
Chapel attendance has dwindled to a small proportion of the population, heavy industry has all but disappeared and, despite a growing number of second-language users, the Welsh language is under threat as a living community language. The future of Wales as the land of song seems to hang in the balance. I will try to find solace in the old saying: “To be born Welsh is to be born privileged, not with a silver spoon in your mouth but with music in your blood and poetry in your soul”.
Mr Toastmaster.
[i] Tom Jones singing with a male voice choir
[ii] One of the most famous and popular with drinkers being ‘I bob un sy’n ffyddlon’
[iii] see Rhos Male Voice Choir and for a romanticised depiction of singing coal miners see the film ‘How Green was my Valley?’
[iv] See explanation from www.cerdd-dant.org “The harp always plays a set melody – a traditional melody or a melody composed in the traditional style. The singer waits for a few bars and then sings his or her words on a counter melody, ensuring that the main accents of the metre fall on the main accents of the harp melody. The singer and harpist both have to end each verse together: the last word of each verse always falls on the main beat of the last bar in the harp melody.”
For samples of Welsh folk music see >Ar Lan y Môr, Suo Gân, Tra Bo Dau or Y ‘Deryn Pur
