David Wynne (composer) explained

David Wynne (2 June 1900 – 23 March 1983) was a prolific Welsh composer, who taught for many years at Cardiff University and wrote much of his best-known music in retirement.

Life and career

Christened David William Thomas, he was born at Nantmoch Uchaf farm in Penderyn, a village near Hirwaun, the son of a shepherd named Philip Thomas and his wife Elizabeth.[1] The following year, the family moved to Llanfabon, near Cilfynydd, where he attended the local school until the age of 12. For the next two years he worked at a local grocer's shop,[1] then at the age of 14 he went down the pit at the Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, where one of Britain's worst mining disasters had occurred in 1894.[2] He continued to work there until the age of 25, even after beginning lessons with a local music teacher and organist, Tom Llewellyn Jenkins, himself a minor composer.[3] In 1925 he was awarded a Glamorgan Scholarship to University College, Cardiff, becoming a pupil of Professor David Evans[4] and John Morgan Lloyd; he obtained a B.Mus. degree in 1928.[1] From there he proceeded to the University of Bristol, where he spent a year in teacher training. In 1929 he was appointed Head of Music at Lewis School Pengam, a grammar school for boys, becoming the first full-time secondary school music teacher in Wales.[1] His students at Pengam included composers Robert Smith and Mervyn Burtch.[5] In 1933, he married Eirwen Evans and they settled in Maesycwmmer. In 1938 the University of Wales awarded him a D.Mus. In 1944 he was awarded the Clements Memorial Prize for his First String Quartet, and this effectively launched his career as a leading composer; thereafter he received regular commissions.[6] At the same time, he began using the name David Wynne for professional purposes. He retired from school teaching in 1960. From 1961 to 1971 he taught composition at Cardiff College of Music and Drama (now the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama),[7] and from 1970 to 1979 in the Department of Music at Cardiff University. In 1983, he died suddenly at his home in Pencoed, whilst working on his Fourth Symphony.[8]

Compositions

Wynne's first symphony, written in 1952, was never performed. His second, in 1956, was only the second work ever commissioned by the Welsh Music Guild.[9] One of his best-known orchestral works, the Third Symphony, was written in 1963 for the Caerffili Festival, and inspired by Caerphilly Castle,[10] its structure based on the castle's concentric design; it was premièred by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Michael Tippett.[9] His gentler and more lyrical side emerged in his Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, which Martin Jones premiered with the Cardiff University Orchestra in 1972.

One of Wynne's earliest successes as a composer was his String Quartet No.1 in February, 1945. It won the A. J. Clements Composition Prize and brought him into contact with Michael Tippett, who remained a friend and supporter. It was the first of five quartets, spanning the years 1944 to 1980. There were also many sonatas including four solo piano sonatas (1947 rev. 1952, 1956, 1966 and 1966). Eiluned Davies premiered the Piano Sonata No 2 in 1957.[11]

The Welsh language had an influence on his composition that was both subtle and profound. The speech rhythms of Welsh poetry permeate his instrumental music, its melodic inflections often consciously influenced by the hwyl of the Welsh preachers that he heard in his youth. Many of his vocal works are settings of early and mediaeval Welsh poetry for which he seems to have had an especial affinity. In Owain ab Urien, a cantata for male voice choir with brass and percussion,[12] he set some of the earliest Welsh poetry, written in the 6th century. This work was also commissioned by the Welsh Music Guild, whose president at the time was Sir Michael Tippett, in memory of its founder, John Edwards;[13] and first performed at the Festival Hall in London in 1967 by the Pendyrus Male Voice Choir under its late director Glynne Jones and the Philip Jones brass ensemble. It was performed again by Risca Male Voice Choir in 2000, as part of Wynne's centenary celebrations.[14]

The David Wynne and Eirwen Thomas Memorial Award was launched in 2006, in association with the Welsh Music Guild, under the terms of David Wynne's will, to advance the careers of student composers, the first recipient being Gareth Churchill.[9]

Selected works

See also Welsh Music Library

Opera

[16]

Orchestral
Concertante
Chamber music
Harp
Organ
Piano
Vocal
Choral

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: David Wynne. Rhidian Griffiths. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 2 May 2016.
  2. Web site: Albion Colliery explosion. Phil Carradice. Phil Carradice. BBC Blogs Wales. BBC. 23 June 2014. 2 May 2016.
  3. Book: Robert Evans. Maggie Humphreys. Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. 1 January 1997. Bloomsbury Publishing. 978-1-4411-3796-8. 187.
  4. Web site: David Evans. David Ewart Parry Williams. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 2 May 2016.
  5. Web site: Performances of "Complete Works" . Martin Hodson . Risca Male Choir Côr Meibion Risca . 2 May 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081120193139/http://www.riscachoir.net/server/cat/15/p/3.html . 20 November 2008 . dmy .
  6. Web site: David Wynne archive (20th C.). Cardiff University. 2 May 2016.
  7. http://www.musicweb-international.com/wynne/index.htm Music web
  8. Book: Music and Musicians. 1982. Hansom Books.
  9. Web site: Welsh Music Guild: History. Welsh Music Guild. 2 May 2016.
  10. Web site: David Wynne. David C F Wright. Wright Music. 1986. 2 May 2016.
  11. https://www.chandos.net/search?zoom_query=David+Wynne&zoom_per_page=24) Notes to Lyrita SRCD 284 (2008)
  12. Web site: Owain ab Urien . Tŷ Cerdd . 2 May 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160601103250/http://www.tycerdd.org/49120 . 1 June 2016 . dmy .
  13. Web site: John Edwards: A Biography. Eileen Price. Welsh Music Guild. 2 May 2016.
  14. Web site: Risca Male Voice Choir. BBC Wales Music. 2 May 2016.
  15. Book: Irmtraud Fischer. Bibel- und Antikenrezeption: Eine interdisziplinäre Annäherung. 2014. LIT Verlag Münster. 978-3-643-50574-3. 229–.
  16. Web site: Opera Composers. Opera Glass. 2011. 2 May 2016.
  17. http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/l/lta00284a.php Classical.net

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