Is there any sweeter music to the ears than Joseph Parry’s elegiac Myfanwy, when sung by a Welsh male voice choir? A staple of the choirs’ repertoire, it tells of a penniless young poet’s forlorn love for a beautiful noblewoman. But it is not the words so much as the beauty of the harmony, and the hywl and hiraeth of the delivery (roughly translated as yearning and spirit, though for Welsh speakers, the words have layers of meaning), that send shivers down the spine.
Male voice choirs are one of the great glories of the land of song. They sing at rugby matches, weddings, funerals and festivals, at eisteddfods and miners’ galas, in pubs, shire halls, school halls, the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall… They sing for charity, community, comradeship,…
