Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1882-12-23
TIE WELSH CHOIRS.


vding musicalcontests is very old,
6aving its origin in the meetings called
Eisteddvodan (the plural of Eistedd-
tod), which were sort Of competitive
examination for the election of chief
bards. These bards formed a very i'm
portant and influential class in the
community they kept alive the ma
tional spirit of the people by stirring
legends OF the wisdom and power of
their ancestors. In fact, their power
was ut times such as to make them the
virtual rulers of the nation. AS early
as 94O A. d., King Howell Dha found
it necessary to revise and limit their
privileges. A century and half later
Griffith ap-Conah still further re-
strained their pretensions, and their
power gradually waned until it van
ished on The conquest of Wales by the
English, when, as tradition says, the
bard5 were ruthlessly exterminated-
Hs%eradition that is now happily rele-
gated to the rapidly increasing num-
Der IF historical myths. These Eistedd-
vodan were not held at any stated
time-but when the Office of chief bard
became vacant from death or some
other reason. They were gatherings
to which all who could by any means
attend, foclIed eagerly; they were al
ways, at least in early times, held in the
open air, some sheltered valley or
sloping hillside being generally chosen
for the purpose. Here the bards WED
with each other in stirring up the pa
triotism and enthusiasm of their vast
audience, by recounting in rugged
verse the warlike deeds of the kings,
and the wisdom of the sages of old, ac-
companying their recitations with the
Welsh harp, called crowd, or Growth,
when he who aroused to the highest
pitch the fervid national feeling that
characterizes all Celtic peoples, was
chosen chief bard by the acclamations
of the multitude.
After the conquest of Wales by Ed
ward l., in 1884, the powerful influence
of the bards was broken. But he and
the succeeding sovereigns, recognizing
the value of such allies, endeared as
they were from old associations to the
popular heart, wisely encouraged the
poetical and the musical aspects of the
Guild of Bards, while they carefully
curtailed their political power. The
last sovereign to make any special en-
actment concerning the bards was
Elizabeth, who in 1903 issued a COM
mission for the holding of an Eistedd-
fod, at C9rwys. But the ancient spirit
was dying out, and, from that time to
the present, the efforts of these associa-
tions have been chiefly directed to pre-
serving the scanty remains of the an
Gent poetry and music Of their people,
and to the encouragement of their
modern national poets and musicians.
In this latter respect they have not as
yet been productive of any very i'm
portant results; the mere fact of a poem
or musical composition being by ma
tive author, and in the native tongue,
has been held sufficient reason to give
it a hearing without any regard to its
merits.
AT the present time, especially among
the Welsh in Pennsylvania, they have
taken much better direction, namely,
in the formation of large choirs for the
study of the choruses of the great mas
tiers, and in this way they are doing a
great work in spreading a love and
knowledge of the masterpieces of
Handel, Back, Haydn and Mendelssohn.
So universal among all classes of the
Welsh people has this love for chorus
singing become, that it may with safety
be said that no other people have such
widely diffused acquaintance with
the very highest class of music as they
have. This is the more remarkable,
when we take into consideration the
fact that both singers and listeners
were, for by far the greater part, COM
posed of miners and their wives and
children.
The members composing choir are
often scattered over wide ex-
tent of territory, so that regular
weekly or even monthly meetings of
the choir are impossible. When new
chorus is to be learned, the various
members will procure, if they can
afford it, one copy for each member of
the family, or, if the work is expen-
sive, one copy for the whole family.
Then the neighboring families will
meet once or twice week at each
others houses, the best reader among
them is appointed leader, and they go