"Welsh Folk Music" for voice, harp and 'cello

Harpist (and tenor!) Osian Ellis joins forces with cellist David Ffrangcon Thomas to perform these fourteen Welsh folk songs. This recording was the first album issued on the Delysé label. Isabella Wallich, niece of the legendary HMV Artistic Director Fred Gaisberg, established the label. She became well-known for her work in promoting the careers of Geraint Evans, Janet Baker, guitarist John Williams, among others.
1. Dafydd y garreg wen (David of the White Rock)
2. Gwcw Fach (The Cuckoo)
3. Hela'r Sgyfarnog (Hunting the Hare)
4. Fenyw Fwyn (Gentle Maid)
5. Deryn y bwn o'r banna (The Bittern)
6. Dacw Dadi'N Mynd I'R Ffair (Little Boy's Song)
7. Pedoli (Shoeing Song)
8. Hen Fenyw Fach (Little Old Lady)
9. Oxen Song
10. Lisa Lan (A love song)
11. Y Sipsi (The Gypsy - a Penillion based on "The Ash Grove")
12. Cwningod (Rabbits)
13. Ymadawiad Arthur (The Death of Arthur)
14. A Sunset Poem (from "Milkwood" by Dylan Thomas)
for other fine interpretations of Welsh song, I recommend the following:
Richard Lewis playlist:
• Richard Lewis (1914-1990)
Thomas L. Thomas playlist:
• Thomas L. Thomas (1911...

[@mortmain1]

I am a believer in the miracle of the internet! Many years ago I was given this album by a Welsh friend. Time and use wore on the vinyl, and after years searching for a replacement, I approached Osian Ellis after a concert in Boston, who seemed faintly shocked that I'd heard it. He offered no hope to me. Your sharing is an answer to a prayer! Thank you, thank you a thousand times!!

[@brngrgld]

amen to that!

[@pamappleton5535]

In the 1950's while Richard Burton was taking Stratford Upon Avon by storm with his Shakespearean stage appearances, Osian Ellis and his wife visited the house the Burtons were staying in that summer. Actors Hugh Griffith and Robert Hardy were also in plays then and sharing the same house. To trick Robert, Burton had Osian hide in a closet under the stairs and play his harp in the middle of the night. It scared Hardy, who thought the old house was haunted! Wish I could have been in Stratford that summer.

[@williamh5103]

As a person, one of the kindest, nicest I have ever had the honour of knowing. As a musician, a true perfectionist! I really do miss him.

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

I saw Ellis perform these songs in a solo program in Manhattan in the early 1990s.

[@marilynroberts7977]

Diolch yn fawr I sang Y Sipsi to The Ash Grove in Cardiff with my friend playing the harp and I still remember the words and tune!!

[@geraintlloyd2805]

Apparently Dafydd y Garreg Wen was composed in a field one night when the writer was returning from late festivities in Portmadoc. The white rock is still visible.

[@telynfach9811]

Diolch yn fawr!! Wonderful album... Osian Ellis was a big inspiration during my early years, and I never tire of hearing him - thank you for sharing.

[@heraldicartist]

out-standing!!!! this should be re released super fast!

[@LearningtheHarp]

My favourites are "Oxen Song" at 15:08 and Lisa Lan at 16:38 :)

[@catlest]

Love these tunes! And the harp - marvellous. I will have to hear more.

[@maxstewart8067]

Penillion is all too often either religious or dirge-like and sometimes both. Here, Ellis demonstrates with Y Sipsi and Cwningod that it need be neither. After thirty years of searching, I now have the original Delyse record, but before then I only had a distant memory of Ellis singing Y Sipsi in a live concert. I suspect that the penillion settings are his own as I have never heard Y Sipsi sung to the tune Llwyn Onn (The Ash Grove) by anyone else. Ellis’s words for Y Sipsi come from a poem of that name published in ‘Cerddi Newydd Crwys’ by Rev William Williams (a.k.a. ‘Crwys’) who was Archdruid 1939 - 1947.

[@flossie5432]

I have recordings recently put onto CD's and my laptop ,of my mother (trained soprano) singing Y Sipsi and a few other welsh songs.Now I just need a 12 yr old to show me how to put them onto KZbin.Lol

[@Knappa22]

I agree completely. I have never heard cerdd dant sung like this to the ceinciau of Llwyn Onn, Datgeiniaid, Ymadawiad y Brenin. So agile and characterful. People who compose countermelody (gosodiad) for ceinciau need to learn from these superb clips.

[@ChrisUK]

Thank you so much for sharing this - it is superb.

[@sananton2821]

Man, even harpists back then could sing like this!

[@mmbmbmbmb]

Thank you for sharing this significantly fabulous work! :o)

[@gmonkman]

diolch. shine on you crazy diamond

[@marioriospinot]

Nice.

[@garethifan1034]

Gwych iawn - wedi mwynhau'n fawr. Diolch.

[@jactyisha4104]

Diolch, yn fawr.

[@richardschuchardt3287]

Diolch a fawr iawn

[@JohnWilliams-bp2so]

Diolch YN fawr iawn.

[@JohnWilliams-bp2so]

Ardderchog!

[@CantwrCymreig]

Hyfryd iawn!

[@JohnWilliams-bp2so]

Yndi!

[@mindfulbreathinginstitute4252]

Ossian Ellis?

[@vcsam12]

It's not musical at all. Also, the cellist is out of tune and has an ugly sound! Fairly accurate, I guess, but I can hardly imagine anything I would rather not listen to! And I'm half Welsh!!

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

You must have a strange definition of musicality, and pitch. Listening to the first two songs, I hear nothing wrong in either aspects. Maybe he couldn't afford a "better" cello or bow. He sounds better than Klaus Storck.