Cylchgronau Cymru

MARY DAVIES GRANDE DAME OF WELSH MUSIC by Wyn Thomas, BMus, MA The Welsh musical tradition in the nineteenth century rarely gave women the opportunity to contribute to its growth and development. After all, was it not 'The Land of my FATHERS' the breeding ground for male voice choirs and Welsh rugby? Was it not home to the great poets of the medieval period and their descendants mostly men (including Dafydd ap Gwilym, lolo Goch, Tudur Aled) and the platform for musicians such as 'Caradog', Joseph Parry, R.S. Hughes and others? And yet, despite the fact that the role of women in nineteenth century Welsh literature had already been well established (in the work of Lady Charlotte Guest and her masterly translation of the Mabinogi into English, Angharad Llwyd and her topographical study of the Isle of Anglesey) the female musician (whether performer or composer) was an unknown phenomenon to us as a people. Women were rarely associated with the field of Welsh music during this time and though evidence of female involvement in the field does exist (as far back as the late seventeenth century) their names sadly, have generally been forgotten, their contribution undocumented, primarily because men dominated the field. Men too compiled the dictionaries, books, articles, monographs and collections which outline the main musical activity of the age. However, during the early years of the twentieth century and particularly the events leading up to the establishing of the Welsh Folk Song Society, is was the extraordinary efforts of three pioneering women that heralded the dawn of a new age and a new opportunity for female musicians. Ruth Herbert Lewis, Dora Herbert Jones and Mary Davies were the three and though this paper aims to focus in on Mary Davies's role in particular it is impossible to ignore the close contact and co-operation that existed between them. Indeed, when Professor John Lloyd Williams (one time Head of Botany at the University of Wales, Bangor) summarised the main historical events related to the Welsh Folk Song Society in the mid- 1930s, he commented that Much of the success has been due to the enthusiasm and vision of a number of lady workers, collecting and publishing the songs, singing them in public and organising the activities of the Society and again within the same article, he goes on: A lecture given to the Honourable Society at the British Academy on 1 June 1997, with Kenneth Bowen, Vice-President of the Society, in the chair. J. Lloyd Williams, 'The History of the Welsh Folk-Song Society', Journal of the Welsh Folk Song Society, vol. Ill, no. 2 (Bangor, 1934), 89.