Morfydd Owen Born Trefforest, Wales 1.10.1891 Died Oystermouth 7.9.1918
Morfydd was the youngest of four children of William and Sarah Owen. She initially had private lessons in piano and composition from David Evans. She then went on to study at University College, Cardiff, where her compositional talents were already evident. In 1912 she moved to London to study at The Royal Academy principally under Frederick Corder. She had hoped to further her studies in St. Petersburg but war prevented this. She was also a professional singer. In 1917 she married Ernest Jones which proved to be an unhappy experience. She died through a bungled operation.
Orchestral
Romance for string orchestra 1911
Nocturne 1913
Morfa Rhuddlan tone poem 1914
Death Music: The Passing of Branwen orchestral suite 1916
Funeral march to Branwen 1916
Chamber
Piano Trio 1915
Romance for violin and piano 1911
Beti Bwt, minuet and trio. reworking of solo piece.
Piano
Sonata 1910
Impromptu 1910
Etude 1910
Fantaisie 1911
Melodie 1911
Chromatic Fugue 1911
Rhapsodir 1911
Causerie gracieuse de riens 1911
Story Fantaisie 1911
Fantaisie Appassionata 1912
Berceuse 1912
Prelude 1913
Preluse and Fugue in the Ancient Style 1914
Beti Bwt prelude 1915
Citi Cariadus prelude 1915
Glantaf, Little Eric prelude 1915
Nant-y-Ffrith prelude 1915
Waiting for Eirlys 1915
Song
Fierce Raged the Tempest words by S Thring 1911
The Refugee words by Schiller 1911
Sea Drift words by Walt Whitman 1911 for mezzo and orchestra
Sweet and Low words by Tennyson 1911
Cycle of Sea Songs voice and orchestra with words by C Rossetti, W Watson, C Mackay & T Campbell
Love's Music for soloist and orchestra words by P Bourke Marston 1912
Mad Song words by William Blake 1912
My luve is like a red, red rose words by R Burns 1912
My Sorrow for soloist and orchestra words by E Crawshaw-Williams 1912
Y Fwyalchen folk song 1912
Toward the Unknown Region for mezzo and Orchestra words by Walt Whitman 1913
Choric Song for soprano and strings words by Tennyson 1914
Eos Gwalia, two songs for soprano and orchestra 1916
For Jeanie's Sake words by E Newman 1917 pub. by Chappell
Impenitent words by E Newman 1918 pub. by Boosey & Co.
Patrick's your boy words by E Newman pub. by Boosey & Co.
Shepherd's Love Song words by A D Edwards pub. by Boosey & Co.
[/i][/size]Two songs for little children for soprano and orchestra 1917
Two Madonna songs; To our Lady of Sorrows words by W Hinton., Slumber song to the Madonna words by A Noys pub. by Cary & Co.
Lady folk song
Cantata
Pro Patria for soprano, baritone and orchestra 1915
There are over 80 songs, many folk songs and 22 hymns.
I have just uploaded her tone poem Morfa Rhuddlan from a 2014 BBC broadcast.
This is a short info from the website:
The Welsh tune Morfa Rhuddlan commemmorates a savage battle between the Welsh and the Saxons in the eighth century.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047bv1q (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047bv1q)
Thanks, Mathias, that's very good of you.
It's not a bad piece at all, although it would have benefited from some sympathetic editing, I suspect. If you want to find out more about Morfydd Owen, you can read a pdf of a lecture about her life (if not much about her music) by going here (http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1386666/llgc-id:1423792/llgc-id:1424045/getText) and then clicking on the pdf symbol at the top of the page, next to "Jump to page".
She is IMHO quite a distinguished composer. Most of her compositions are in the National Library of Wales (I think).
Thank you very much for the recording of "Morfa Rhuddlan"...
By the way, did someone happen to record her "Nocturne for Orchestra in D-flat major" which has been broadcast on 7 March 2016 on BBC-Radio 3 ? The one-minute snippet sounds very promising in my view :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/records/n3j65z
Sorry, I missed it. Would love to hear it, too!
Here is the link to the Archive Collection of her works held by The National Library of Wales: http://archivesearch.cf.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=430%2f1 (http://archivesearch.cf.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=430%2f1)
I now have a recording of her "Nocturne for Orchestra in D-flat major" if someone is interested...
I'd certainly appreciate it if you could upload a copy of the Nocturne recording to our Downloads board, Music33. Thanks very much.
I just uploaded it. Enjoy ! IMHO it's a very fine piece...
That's very kind of you, thanks.
QuoteIMHO it's a very fine piece...
It's cetainly an accomplished and effective work, very much of its time.
The download: what is an m4a file? Can I save and play it as an mp3? Can I write it to a CD?
An m4a file is supposed to have a better audio quality than an mp3, without having the very heavy weight of a wav. You can convert it as an mp3 by Switch Converter for example. But if you want, I can re-post the "Nocturne" in mp3 format.