Dilys Elwyn-Edwards

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards
Born Dilys Roberts
(1918-08-19)19 August 1918
Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales, UK
Died 13 January 2012(2012-01-13) (aged 93)
Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales, UK
Nationality Welsh
Occupation Composer
Known for Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards (née Roberts; 19 August 1918 – 13 January 2012) was a Welsh-language composer, lecturer and accompanist.

Biography

Dilys Roberts was born on 19 August 1918[1] in Dolgellau, Wales. She attended Dr. Williams' School for Girls,[2] a grammar school which educated girls ages 7–18 from 1878 to 1975. She was offered the Turle Music Scholarship at Girton College, Cambridge and the Dr. Joseph Parry Scholarship, from Cardiff University.[3] She elected to study at Cardiff University and received her BMus degree. She taught music at the university for the next three years. She received the Open Scholarship in Composition from the Royal College of Music in London and studied composition with Herbert Howells and piano with Kathleen McQuitty there.[3]

She married Elwyn Edwards, a Methodist minister and theological scholar, on 3 September 1937.[4] She moved to Oxford while her husband attended Mansfield College. She taught music from 1946-72.[5]

In the 1960s they moved back to Wales,[3] where Elwyn became minister for the Calvinist Methodist chapel in Castle Square, Caernarfon. In 1973 she became a piano tutor at Bangor Normal College and Bangor University in North Wales, where she proved to be a popular, effective and much-respected teacher of the instrument. She was also an Eisteddfod adjudicator,[3] and appeared and performed on radio and television.[4] The BBC commissioned a number of works from her.[6] She died on 13 January 2012, at Llanberis, Gwynedd, aged 93.[7]

Music

She was known for her soft, melodic art songs (Lied) for voice in both Welsh and English. Charlotte Church[8] and Aled Jones[9] have recorded Caneuon y Tri Aderyn (Three Welsh Bird Songs; 1962): Y Gylfinir (The Curlew), Tylluanod (Owls), and her most famous song, Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr (There is longing in the sea, R. Williams Parry's sonnet set to music). This work was commissioned by the BBC in 1961.[6] Bryn Terfel recorded in 2004 on his DG CD "Silent Noon" The Cloths of Heaven/ Gwisg Nefoedd[10] by Elwyn-Edwards (with text by W.B. Yeats[11]).

Works

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Sadie, Julie Anne and Rhian Samuel. Dilys Elwyn-Edwards' profile at The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. p. 159.
  2. ↑ Bright, Kimberly J. A thesis for the Master of Music (MM) degree. The History and Importance of Welsh Art Song: The Soprano Repertoire of Dilys Elwyn Edwards., Bowling Green State University, Music Performance/Voice, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Lewis, Geraint. "Dilys Elwyn-Edwards: True to Nature", Contemporary Music Review, vol 11, Issue 1, 1994, pp. 85-87.
  4. 1 2 Melrose, David. International who's who in music and musicians' directory: In the classical and light classical fields, 12th edition Cambridge, England: International Who's Who In Music, 1990, p. 235.
  5. ↑ Dees, Pamela Youngdahl. Dilys Elwyn-Edwards' profile at A Guide to Piano Music by Women Composers. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. p. 63.
  6. 1 2 Jones, Aled. Ave Maria CD Booklet. 1994, p. 16.
  7. ↑ "Composer Dilys Elwyn-Edwards dies at 93". BBC. 18 January 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  8. ↑ Charlotte Church. "Voice of an Angel". Sony Classical, 1998
  9. ↑ Jones, Aled. Ave Maria. Sain, 2005. CD.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ "Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven", The Wind Among the Reeds. New York: J. Lane, The Bodley Head, 1899; Bartleby.com, 1999.

External links

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