Today I’d like to share with you a traditional Welsh song performed by Welsh harpist and singer Gwenan Gibbard. It comes from her album Sidan Glas (Blue Silk). I don’t understand the entire lyrics, but from what I do gather it is about someone who was travelling (sailing, I’m pretty sure) through the world and had to say goodbye to his native country – Wales – and a lot of places in North Wales are mentioned by name that have been dear to the lyrical subject as well as things he enjoyed doing there.
I have shared this lovely lullaby with you in the past, sung by Siân James, and because I really like it, I thought that today I’d share a different version with you, sung by another Welsh folk singer and harpist, but this time one from North Wales – Gwenan Gibbard. – You can visit the post above to find the translation of the lyrics.
Today I have for you a little traditional Welsh tune, performed by the singer and harpist Gwenan Gibbard, whose music I’ve shared a lot on here. I found a translation of it, written by Dafydd Iwan.
Little cuckoo, aren’t you foolish, Singing amongst the spiky gorse, Go to the parish of fair Dolgellau, You will find there green bushes. Little cuckoo, fly immediately To the banks of the Wnion river On the wing, wait awhile By the home of my beloved. Little cuckoo, if you see there Someone weeping salty tears Sing to him the song of spring A song of hope to comfort him.
Today I want to share with you all a traditional tune sung by Gwenan Gibbard, an artist whose music I’ve shared on here regularly both as a harpist and singer. It comes from her album Y Gwenith Gwynnaf (The Whitest Wheat).
Today I have for you a piece from Gwenan Gibbard, a folk singer and Celtic harpist from North Wales whose music I’ve shared a lot on here. This song, as far as I’m aware, actually seems to be a poem written by Gerallt Lloyd Owen.
For today I have for you a beautiful piece played and sung by Welsh Celtic harpist and folk singer Gwenan Gibbard. As far as I know, it’s a traditional tune. Honestly though, I don’t really know what “Heli” in the title is supposed to me. As far as I can tell, there’s no such word in Welsh and it’s quite clearly a placename, but I don’t know of any place called Heli in Wales (which doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t one, just that I haven’t come across it). The only thing that I can think of is a town called Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula, which, as it happens, is Gwenan Gibbard’s hometown, so maybe it’s colloquially known as Heli or used to be called Heli in the past or something. Maybe I’d be able to figure out more about what Heli is if I understood more of the lyrics. I’m pretty sure from what I do understand that there’s a mention of Ireland in this song though.
For today, I’d like to share with you something from the Welsh Celtic harpist, singer and songwriter Gwenan Gibbard. This time it’s her original song, from her 2013 album Cerdd Dannau”. Unfortunately my understanding of these lyrics is far from full, so I don’t feel capable of translating them for you.
Today I’m sharing with you a song from Welsh harpist and singer Gwenan Gibbard, already featured on this blog multiple times. I don’t really know much about this song, not eve whether it’s her original composition, or a traditional tune, or maybe someone else wrote and composed it in modern times, but I think it’s beautiful.
beautifully sung acapella by Gwilym Bowen Rhys, who’s of course one of my faza people. And then I think I also shared it sung by Siân James. I had very little idea about Welsh then, and didn’t know what the word “dod” was supposed to mean in this context, but now I know it means to put or place. Since then, I’ve also become familiar with Ffion from the Foxglove Trio, who has a blog where she writes about Welsh folk songs, and which I often find very useful. And she wrote
It’s thanks to her that I finally learned what this song is about and I agree that it’s one of the saddest Welsh songs of those I’ve heard.
As it’s quite easy to figure out from the lyrics, the lyrical subject is addressing their former lover, by whom their heart has been broken.
The translated lyrics below are taken from Ffion’s website, who in turn got them from the website of Gwenan Gibbard, and they’ve been translated by Dafydd Ifan.
Today, I want to share with you another version of a traditional song that I previously shared with you on here, this time a more acoustic one from the harpist Gwenan Gibbard. I think this is the first tune by her that I’m sharing where she’s also singing. For more background information about this song, you can click the link below, where I shared the
with one of my faza peeps – Gwilym Bowen Rhys – and Bethan Rhiannon as vocalists.
While obviously I really like both versions or otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing them here, I think I lean more towards the Pendevig one, as, in my opinion, it shows its spirit better, and also, well, fazas are fazas, Gwilym rules! But the big pluses of Gwenan Gibbard’s interpretation are that it’s more traditional, and, of course, features the harp.
Today I have an interesting little piece of Welsh folk music for you. Interesting in that, apparently it is known from Startrek, because of Scotty singing some version of it in that movie! Don’t know which one, and can’t confirm it as I never watched it, but I think it’s really interesting that a piece like this has gotten a bit of attention in the mainstream.
The version I’m sharing with you is instrumental. It is a slip jig (that’s how they call Celtic folk tunes composed in this tempo and style and slip jig is also one of the Irish traditional dances) composed by the 18th-century Welsh blind harpist Richard Roberts. It’s interesting how the Celtic area had so many blind artists around that time – be it harpists or poets – who have contributed to what we now know as folk/traditional music. Think Turlough o’Carolan (the very famous Irish harper) or Richard Williams aka Dark Dick, who wrote
I find the title of this piece confusing. It’s literal translation would be “Cream of The Yellow Beer” which makes little sense, at least to me, I do admit though that I know nothing about beer, maybe some beer geek would see more sense in this. But I found out that it’s translated to English just as in the title. Still, don’t know if this is the name of some English version of this or indeed how it should be translated. In Welsh it’s also known as “Cwrw Da” (A Good Beer), so whatever beer it is, I guess we can safely assume at least that one thing about it, although I could argue that every beer is equally yucky, perhaps I just haven’t been lucky enough to try a good one so far.
The version I chose to share with you comes from Gwenan Gibbard, who is already known on this blog since I share her music quite regularly.
Today, I’m sharing with you a few pieces in one track from Gwenan Gibbard. As far as I know, the first two are her own compositions, and the third one is traditional for sure. The first one, like many tunes by Gwenan Gibbard, is inspired by nature in north Wales. This one is dedicated to Traeth Lafan, or Lavan Sands in English, which is an intertidal sandbank in Gwynedd.
Today, let’s listen to a very mountain-themed set of two harp tunes from Gwenan Gibbard. She is from the Llyn Peninsula, as I may have mentioned in some other post featuring her music (as I’ve shared some more of it in the past) which is located in Snowdonia and also commonly known as the Snowdon’s Arm. No surprise then that both these pieces have Snowdonia-inspired titles.
A very nature-themed piece I’d like to share with you today, and a bit summery, contrasting with the fact that it’s snowing lightly over here right now. 🙂 I shared a beautiful two-piece set by Gwenan Gibbard, and here’s another one. It feels very idyllic to me. The first piece in here is called “Yr Hafren”, Hafren being the original Welsh name for the river Severn. And the othet, summery piece is called “Heulwen Haf” which means Summer Sunrise. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 🙂
Today I’d like to share with you a set of two harp songs by my most favourite Welsh harpist – Gwenan Gibbard. She is from Llyn Peninsula in north Wales, and apart from being a harpist, she’s also a singer, and a Welsh language native in whose life music has always played a huge part since her early childhood.
Sadly I have no idea about who composed these songs, whether it’s Gwenan herself or whether they are traditional, but since I cannot find any info I think it’s safe to assume that they’re traditional. The first song is called Song of the Lleisons in English – Lleison is simply a Welsh surname. I’m curious who they were. I really like this composition as it is so melancholic and so very beautiful. And the other is Song of The Little Spinning Wheel, which has a much more happy, upbeat feel which is also why I like it a lot. I don’t know which one I like more. Do you have a favourite?
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