Sioned Webb is well respected as a broadcaster, educator, folklorist and composer. Having performed in Canada, South America, Asia and Europe, she has also published many books on Welsh music. A national triple harp winner in Wales, she is now collaborating with the oud player from Palestine, Salih Hassan and is on tour with the storyteller and actress Mair Tomos Ifans.
Sioned’s performance for Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust was held at St Mary’s Church, Abbeycwmhir. St Mary’s Church, built in 1865-6 in the French Gothic style, was designed by Poundley & Walker, well known local architects, and displays stained glass windows of regional and national importance. The East End glass is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and the West window by Clayton and Bell.
Sioned told us something of the history of the Triple Harp which came to Wales from Europe in the 17th century and has three layers of strings, giving a total of around 100. However, it is more portable than the familiar pedal harp. The musical illustrations started with Cainck Dafydd Broffwyd from the Robert ap Huw manuscripts which is a late medieval collection of harp music. The music moved on to a sarabande , composed by Marged uch Ifan, born in 1696, before we heard the well known Dafydd y Garreg Wen, David of the White Rock, composed by David Own in Porthmadog around 1740. Clychau Morgannwg was a delightful depiction of bells composed by Iolo Morgannwg who was responsible for introducing doctrines of bardism and druidical gorseddau to London in the later 18th century.
Sioned continued with Beth yw’r Haf I Mi ( What is summer to me?) which was noted in Castell Harlech in the 18thcentury and then lost until it turned up in a book shop in Bangor two centuries later, a fortuitous event not dissimilar to the discovery of our Abbey Cwmhir Charter of 1200 in a bookshop in Battle in 1956!
To demonstrate the versatility of the harp Sioned played an Arabic tune, Kujawiak Babki ( Grandmother’s Dance) learnt from Salih Hassan, a Palestinian oud player now living in Cardiff and with whom she played it at the National Eisteddfod in Meifod in 2002.
Finally, we heard Lisa Lan, a well known Welsh Melody but with connections to Irish traditions too.
If you would like to hear a recording of this recital, click here:
