Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Hi, friends,
There is actually no photography associated with this music, but here it is anyway.
Ryan Davies (pronounced “Davis”) is not only one of Wales’ most beloved composers but also enjoyed considerable fame as a playwright, actor, music hall singer, and radio and television comedian.
His beautiful ballad, Pan fo’r Nos yn Hir (When the Night is Long), was the work chosen by Davies’ widow, Irene, for performance at his funeral in 1977. He had died in Buffalo, New York, while on vacation there with his family. He was 40 years old.
I did not know that when I used it at the funeral of my first wife, Bobbie, in 1997.
I had become interested in the work after hearing it played on the harp during intermission at a dinner variety show at historic Cardiff Castle in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Upon my return to Dallas, I researched the work and was able to purchase both a recording and a songbook including the score from two separate Welsh music publishing houses.
The composer’s widow (now using the name Irene Ryan-Davies) was kind enough to provide me with Davies’ English words to the song. This text, for reasons of poetic and musical necessity, obviously departed some from the meaning of the Welsh text.
I was still fascinated to learn of the poetry underlying the original Welsh words, and I asked Mrs. Davies to prepare a literal translation. Her beautiful translation did not extend to the last repeat in the arrangement I was studying, so, feeling I had already troubled her enough, I sought to compete it myself, having recently just learned enough of the Welsh language to be dangerous.
I remained baffled by one obscure construction in that phrase, so I sought out the help of the composer’s daughter, Bethan Davies, a noted Welsh composer in her own right. She was kind enough to help me over that hurdle.
Here is that translation:
When the night is long
__and the dawn is far away
Battling through the long hours
__without an hour’s sleep
Fighting, tossing and turning
__through the great, long hours
Without seeing the close of yesterday
__nor the end of my journey
Then through the black darkness
__I see your face
I remember the romance
__the eyelid closes
When the night is long.
Then through the black darkness
__I see your face
And fear doth retreat,
__dread disappears
When the night becomes day.
The published arrangement of the piece incorporates a striking piano accompaniment by Benny Litchfield of the BBC. I adapted the arrangement for horn and piano (the horn taking the vocal line) and transcribed it for performance on a modern sequencer-synthesizer.
Here is the MIDI file, which the composer's daughter has posted on a Welsh music site:
http://doug.kerr.home.att.net/pumpkin/music/PANFOR4.mid
There is actually no photography associated with this music, but here it is anyway.
Ryan Davies (pronounced “Davis”) is not only one of Wales’ most beloved composers but also enjoyed considerable fame as a playwright, actor, music hall singer, and radio and television comedian.
His beautiful ballad, Pan fo’r Nos yn Hir (When the Night is Long), was the work chosen by Davies’ widow, Irene, for performance at his funeral in 1977. He had died in Buffalo, New York, while on vacation there with his family. He was 40 years old.
I did not know that when I used it at the funeral of my first wife, Bobbie, in 1997.
I had become interested in the work after hearing it played on the harp during intermission at a dinner variety show at historic Cardiff Castle in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Upon my return to Dallas, I researched the work and was able to purchase both a recording and a songbook including the score from two separate Welsh music publishing houses.
The composer’s widow (now using the name Irene Ryan-Davies) was kind enough to provide me with Davies’ English words to the song. This text, for reasons of poetic and musical necessity, obviously departed some from the meaning of the Welsh text.
I was still fascinated to learn of the poetry underlying the original Welsh words, and I asked Mrs. Davies to prepare a literal translation. Her beautiful translation did not extend to the last repeat in the arrangement I was studying, so, feeling I had already troubled her enough, I sought to compete it myself, having recently just learned enough of the Welsh language to be dangerous.
I remained baffled by one obscure construction in that phrase, so I sought out the help of the composer’s daughter, Bethan Davies, a noted Welsh composer in her own right. She was kind enough to help me over that hurdle.
Here is that translation:
When the night is long
__and the dawn is far away
Battling through the long hours
__without an hour’s sleep
Fighting, tossing and turning
__through the great, long hours
Without seeing the close of yesterday
__nor the end of my journey
Then through the black darkness
__I see your face
I remember the romance
__the eyelid closes
When the night is long.
Then through the black darkness
__I see your face
And fear doth retreat,
__dread disappears
When the night becomes day.
The published arrangement of the piece incorporates a striking piano accompaniment by Benny Litchfield of the BBC. I adapted the arrangement for horn and piano (the horn taking the vocal line) and transcribed it for performance on a modern sequencer-synthesizer.
Here is the MIDI file, which the composer's daughter has posted on a Welsh music site:
http://doug.kerr.home.att.net/pumpkin/music/PANFOR4.mid