William Sidney Gwynn Williams (April 4, 1896 – 13 November 1978Welsh Biography Online
accessed 27 Oct 2014) was a musician and composer, also lecturer, author, editor and broadcaster on the history of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and in particular Welsh music. He was prominent in the foundation of the

International Eisteddfod The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is a music festival which takes place every year during the second week of July in Llangollen, North Wales. It is one of several large annual Eisteddfodau in Wales. Singers and dancers from around ...

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...

, Wales in 1947 and become its first musical director. W. S. Gwynn Williams was born at Plas Hafod,

, the son of the musician W. Pencerdd Williams. He started playing the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

when he was very young and began composing in his teens. When he was 17 he became an Associate of the Tonic Sol-Fa College of Music in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. From 1922 to 1929 he edited the periodical Y Cerddor Newydd (The New Musician); from 1923 he was Director of Music for the Gorsedd of Bards of the National Eisteddfod; from 1933 to 1957 he was secretary of the Welsh Folk Song Society and become the Society's chairman in 1957. He was editor of the Society's Journal for thirty years from 1946. In 1937 he founded the Gwynn Publishing Company with the aim to increase the repertoire of traditionally inspired vocal and choral music. He was married to Elizabeth Eleanor, and he died in 1978. Among the many collections of folk-songs and music published by Gwynn Williams are: ''Old Welsh Folk-songs'' (1927); ''Caneuon Traddodiadol y Cymry'' (Vol 1: 1961, Vol 2: 1963); ''Welsh National Music and Dance'' (four editions: 1932 to 1971) and ''Harp Tunes of Wales'' (1962). His compositions include: ''Tosturi Duw (God's Mercy)'' (1943), ''My Little Welsh Home'', ''Breuddwyd Glyndwr (Glendower's Dream)'' (1950), ''Dawns y Medelwyr (Harvester's Dance)'' (1940) and ''Welsh Playbook'' (1925).

References

National Library of Wales

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, W. S. Gwynn 1896 births 1978 deaths Welsh composers Welsh male composers 20th-century British composers 20th-century British male musicians