Myfanwy

Sources differ as to whether Joseph Parry composed the music to an existing poem by Richard Davies ("Mynyddog"; 1833–1877) or whether Davies wrote the words for Parry's melody. Davies' lyrics were likely influenced by the 14th century love story of Myfanwy Fychan of Castell Dinas Brân and the bard Hywel ab Einion. The story was a popular subject for nineteenth century writers in Wales and was the subject of the poem, "Myfanwy Fychan" (1858), by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832–87). Other sources say it was written with Parry's childhood sweetheart, Myfanwy Llywellyn, in mind. The lyrics may also have been influenced by Thomas Walter Price English language poem, "Arabella". The song debuted on 28 May 1875 at the first concert of the Aberystwyth and University Musical Society, with Parry as the conductor. It was published the same year, with Parry selling all rights to the publisher for just £12. == Lyrics and literal translation ==

The ownership of the copyright was sold by Isaac Jones of Treherbert to D.J. Snell of Swansea in 1930, who reprinted it the following year. is shown above, with the following modernizations of the Welsh language: digter to dicter, cynau to cynnau, ffol to ffôl, melus to melys, ol to ôl, chwareu to chwarau, thânau to thanau, auraidd to euraidd, ammod to amod, ddysglaer to ddisglair, ffarwel to ffarwél. There has been a proliferation of word changes since 1931, with so many performers covering it. In particular, most modern versions substitute '' 'nghariad for cariad in Verse 1, cheisiaf fyth for fynaf byth and Ai gormod for A'i gormod in Verse 2, and 'ngeneth ddel for eneth ddel'' in Verse 3. == Melody ==

Here is the melody line from the 1931 publication. \relative c'' { \time 4/4 \key des \major \autoBeamOff \tempo 8 = 200 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"clarinet" \partial 4 aes4 % 0 des4. des8 des des es8. des16 % 1 des4 c2 des4 % 2 es4. es8 ees ees f8. es16 % 3 es4 (des2) aes4 % 4 f'4. f8 f f ges8. f16 % 5 f4 ees2 c8 (des) % 6 es4. es8 es ges f e % 7 f2 r4 aes, % 8 bes4. bes8 bes bes des8. bes16 % 9 bes4 aes2 des4 % 10 c4. c8 des c des es % 11 f2 r4 aes % 12 aes4. ges8 bes,4 ges' % 13 ges4. f8 aes, aes\fermata des4 % 14 des4. des8 des c f\fermata es % 15 des2. \bar "|." % 16 } \addlyrics { Pa -- ham mae dic -- ter, O My -- fan -- wy, Yn llen -- wi'th ly -- gaid du -- on di? A'th ru -- ddiau ti -- rion, O My -- fan -- wy, Heb wri -- do wrth fy ngwe -- led i? Pa le mae'r wên oedd ar dy we -- fus Fu'n cyn -- nau ca -- riad ffydd -- lon ffôl? Pa le mae sain dy ei -- riau me -- lys Fu'n de -- nu ngha -- lon ar dy ôl? } == Usage and performances ==

As well as the song being sung in the original four parts by many choirs, the top melody line by itself has also become a solo love-song. A hundred years after it was first published Ryan Davies performed the song at the Swansea Top Rank introducing it as "the greatest love song ever written". A live recording of this version was included on Davies' album Ryan at the Rank and quickly became one of Davies' most notable and familiar performances. Davies' rendition began a renewed popularity for the performance of the song, especially with Welsh Male Voice Choirs. Two of the most widely recognized choral renditions are by the Treorchy Male Voice Choir, and the Neath Male Voice Choir. The song is often performed at the Principality Stadium during the Welsh rugby team's home matches, and the Morriston Orpheus Choir recorded a version of the song for the Welsh Rugby Union's official album in 2006. John Cale has performed the song throughout his career, most notably a 1992 TV performance on the S4C programme Heno. Opera singer, Bryn Terfel recorded a choral version of the song on his album "We'll Keep a Welcome". Cerys Matthews recorded a guitar version for her 2010 album Tir, ==Use in Media==

Film and TV The song features in John Ford's Academy Award-winning film How Green Was My Valley and also in the last scene of the Swansea-based movie Twin Town, where it is sung by members of many local choirs, including the Pontarddulais Male Choir. At a key moment of the plot, the protagonist in the 1992 Welsh-language film Hedd Wyn, which was nominated for an Academy Award, sings it to his former fiancée. It is both played and discussed in the episode "Death and Dust" of the show Midsomer Murders, during a visit to Wales by detectives from an English village. In the 2008 biographical romantic drama Edge of Love, Vera and Dylan Thomas played by Keira Knightley and Matthew Rhys respectively sing the song together to celebrate Vera's recent marriage to William Killick played by Cillian Murphy. Literature The song also features strongly in the debut novel A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe about a young embalmer who serves in Aberfan in the aftermath of the mining disaster. ==Notes==