Dear all
Many thanks to those who braved the chilly autumn night to come to rehearsal this evening. We achieved a heck of a lot, but by my count we now only have 5 rehearsal left before the planned concert – it is really important that everyone comes to all rehearsals from now on. If we only have ¾ of the choir each week, we need to keep going over notes rather than actually rehearse the music and get it performance ready.
Today, we spent time on Battle of Jericho, managing to perform more than half of it without music. This piece, more than any, needs to move on from note bashing so please look at your part during the week if you can. I won’t spend any more time going though the notes with this piece! Rhythm is far more important than notes in this kind of music – we need to make sure the rhythms are really accurate and snappy.
THe rest of the rehearsal was dedicated to the new arrangement of All Through the Night (Ar Hyd y Nos). It’s sounding lovely – the notes are relatively straight forward. Of course, we are hoping to sing the majority of this piece in Welsh, so we need to get our heads around the words! I thought this edition of Rehearsal Roundup might be best used to transliterate the 2nd and 3rd verses for you. Remember the different pronunciations:
ch – no direct English equivalent, pronounced as in the Scottish loch
dd – voiced ‘th’, as art the end of the word breathe
th – unvoiced ‘th’, as at the end of breath
ll – no direct equivalent in English (or any other European language), it’s a bit like a cat’s hiss, produced with the tongue between the sides of your teeth
ff – ‘f’ sound as in off
f – ‘v’ sound as in of
u – pronounced like the letter ‘I’ in English
w – used as a vowel in Welsh, equivalent to the English ‘u’ or ‘oo’
y – also used as a vowel, usually either ‘uh’ or ‘ee’ sound
So, here’s the Welsh words, with a rough transliteration in italics below. I can’t transliterate the ‘ll’ or ‘ch’ letters, so I’ve left them as they are!
Holl amrantau’r ser ddywedant
Holl am-ran-tyre sair thu-wed-ant
Ar hyd y nos
Are heed uh nos
“Dyma’r ffordd i fro gogoniant,”
Dum are forthe ee vro go-gon-yant
Ar hyd y nos
Are heed uh nos
Golau arall yw tywyllwch
Goh-lie ar-all ew tuh-wuh-llooch
I arddangos gwir brydferthwch
Eee are-than-gos gweer brid-ver-thooch
Teulu’r nefoedd mewn tawelwch
Ty-leer nevoyth mehoon (as a diphthong, ‘meh-oon’) ta-wel-ooch
Ar hyd y nos
O mor siriol, gwena’r seren
Oh more seer-yol gwen a seren
Ar hyd y nos
I oleuo’i chwaer ddaearen
Eee o-lay-oi ch-wire thy-are-en
Ar hyd y nos
Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd
Nos ew hen-aynt pan thou custeethe
Ond i harddu dyn a’i hwyrddydd
Ond ee har-thee deen aye hoyr-theethe
Rhown ein golau gwan i’n gilydd
Rown ayn goh-lie gwan een gill-eethe
Ar hyd y nos
Happy learning!
Dave