Morfydd Llwyn Owen
Encyclopedia
Morfydd Llwyn Owen was a Welsh
composer
, pianist
and mezzo-soprano
. Though she lived an abbreviated life, dying shortly before her 27th birthday, Owen was a prolific composer, as well as a member of influential intellectual circles.
, October 1, 1891. Her parents were both amateur musicians who ran a drapery business. She was a musical child, showing great talent at an early age and received piano lessons early on. While in her teens she appeared as a soloist in a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto
. At 16 she began to study piano and composition with Dr David Evans
in Cardiff and published her first work in 1909, a hymn tune
entitled “Morfydd.”.
After two years of study with Evans, Owen won a scholarship to study at Cardiff University
and was formally admitted into the composition class. Many of her works were performed in student recitals at Cardiff
, and she graduated in 1912. Owen then moved to London to study with Frederick Corder
at the Royal Academy of Music
on the Goring Thomas scholarship, which she held for four years. It was at the Academy that Owen also began to study voice. She was a very successful student and won two prizes (including the Charles Lucas medal for composition and the Oliveria Prescott prize for general excellence) within her first year. She continued to accumulate awards during her stay at the Royal Academy where her work - songs, part-songs and piano pieces including a sonata, pieces for violin and piano, trio for violin, cello and piano - were performed. At the end of her course, she was honoured with the Academy's diploma, the ARAM.
In the meantime she developed her voice as a mezzo-soprano, winning another scholarship - the Swansea Eisteddfod Prize for singing. At a concert in the Bechstein Hall (later renamed the Wigmore Hall
) in 1913, she sang 4 of her own songs:"Chanson de Fortunio"; "Song from a Persian Village", "Suo Gan" and "The Year's at the Spring". Her professional debut was in January 1917 at the Aeolian Hall in London.
, Owen formed two separate circles of friends. The first group being that of the Charing Cross Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, which was a central gathering point for many Welsh people living in London. Owen developed an especially close friendship with the wife of the then Liberal MP for Flinshire, Sir Herbert Lewis. Lady Ruth Lewis was an important figure in the Welsh Folk-Song Society of London and invited Owen to become involved with the organization. Owen obliged and transcribed, as well as wrote accompaniments to, many pieces for collections of Welsh Folk Songs. She provided musical examples to illustrate Lewis’s lectures on folksong and in 1914 they collaborated in publishing Folk-Songs Collected in Flinshire and the Vale of Clwyd.
The other social circle Owen associated with was the London literary intellegensia; notable acquaintances were the poets D. H. Lawrence
and Ezra Pound
. She also was friends with several Russian émigrés. It was through her Russian friendships, as well as influence of her work with Ruth Lewis, that Owen developed a fascination with Russian folk song. In 1915 she asked for, and received, a fellowship from the University of Wales to study the folk music of Russia
, Norway
and Finland
. However, the outbreak of the First World War made travel impossible.
In February 1917, much to the shock and disappointment of her parents and the Lewis family, Owen married the psychoanalyst Ernest Jones
. Jones was the leading exponent in Britain of Freud’s ideas and an avowed atheist. It was reported that Ruth Lewis refused to even meet him. There is some evidence that Jones was unsupportive of Owen’s musical career; in a letter of 20 February 1917 to Sigmund Freud
, Jones indicated that the 1917 Aeolian Hall concert was to be Owen’s final public appearance. However, Owen did perform again, presenting the premiere performance of Harry Farjeon
’s song cycle A Lute of Jade in July 1917 at the Birkenhead National Eisteddfod.
In the summer of 1918, whilst travelling in South Wales with Jones, Owen developed a sudden and acute case of appendicitis
. She died after an emergency operation on September 7 due to delayed chloroform
poisoning. She was buried in Oystermouth Cemetery on the outskirts of Swansea
where her gravestone bears the inscription, chosen by Jones from Goethe's Faust: "Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist's getan" - "Here the indescribable is done."
Though Owen only composed seriously for just over 10 years, she was able to produce 180 compositions. These include pieces for chamber ensemble, piano, mixed choir and tone poems for orchestra. However, it is her compositions for voice and piano that are regarded as her most important and mature contributions. Her most well known include "Slumber Song of the Madonna", "To our Lady of Sorrows", "Suo Gan", and her masterpiece in Welsh, "Gweddi'r Pechadur”. There were also some 22 hymn tunes and several anthems. After her death, Jones and Corder arranged for the publication of a four-volume memorial edition of her work for voice and piano
(Anglo-French Music Company Ltd, London 1924). Thanking Jones for the copy he sent her, her close friend Elizabeth Lloyd wrote, "Each page brought fresh memories of our lost darling". A centenary edition was published in Cardiff in 1991.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
. Though she lived an abbreviated life, dying shortly before her 27th birthday, Owen was a prolific composer, as well as a member of influential intellectual circles.
Early life and education
Owen was born in Treforest, South WalesSouth Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
, October 1, 1891. Her parents were both amateur musicians who ran a drapery business. She was a musical child, showing great talent at an early age and received piano lessons early on. While in her teens she appeared as a soloist in a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
. At 16 she began to study piano and composition with Dr David Evans
David Evans (composer)
David Evans was a Welsh musician and composer.Evans was born at Resolven, Glamorgan. He worked in the coal industry as a teenager, but music was always his primary interest. He won a music scholarship and became a pupil of Joseph Parry, which led to his qualifying at University of Wales, Cardiff,...
in Cardiff and published her first work in 1909, a hymn tune
Hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....
entitled “Morfydd.”.
After two years of study with Evans, Owen won a scholarship to study at Cardiff University
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
and was formally admitted into the composition class. Many of her works were performed in student recitals at Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, and she graduated in 1912. Owen then moved to London to study with Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder was an English composer and music teacher.-Biography:Corder was born in Hackney, the son of Micah Corder and his wife Charlotte Hill. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and started music lessons, particularly piano, early. Later he studied with Henry Gadsby...
at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
on the Goring Thomas scholarship, which she held for four years. It was at the Academy that Owen also began to study voice. She was a very successful student and won two prizes (including the Charles Lucas medal for composition and the Oliveria Prescott prize for general excellence) within her first year. She continued to accumulate awards during her stay at the Royal Academy where her work - songs, part-songs and piano pieces including a sonata, pieces for violin and piano, trio for violin, cello and piano - were performed. At the end of her course, she was honoured with the Academy's diploma, the ARAM.
In the meantime she developed her voice as a mezzo-soprano, winning another scholarship - the Swansea Eisteddfod Prize for singing. At a concert in the Bechstein Hall (later renamed the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
) in 1913, she sang 4 of her own songs:"Chanson de Fortunio"; "Song from a Persian Village", "Suo Gan" and "The Year's at the Spring". Her professional debut was in January 1917 at the Aeolian Hall in London.
London Life and Career
While she was in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Owen formed two separate circles of friends. The first group being that of the Charing Cross Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, which was a central gathering point for many Welsh people living in London. Owen developed an especially close friendship with the wife of the then Liberal MP for Flinshire, Sir Herbert Lewis. Lady Ruth Lewis was an important figure in the Welsh Folk-Song Society of London and invited Owen to become involved with the organization. Owen obliged and transcribed, as well as wrote accompaniments to, many pieces for collections of Welsh Folk Songs. She provided musical examples to illustrate Lewis’s lectures on folksong and in 1914 they collaborated in publishing Folk-Songs Collected in Flinshire and the Vale of Clwyd.
The other social circle Owen associated with was the London literary intellegensia; notable acquaintances were the poets D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
and Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
. She also was friends with several Russian émigrés. It was through her Russian friendships, as well as influence of her work with Ruth Lewis, that Owen developed a fascination with Russian folk song. In 1915 she asked for, and received, a fellowship from the University of Wales to study the folk music of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. However, the outbreak of the First World War made travel impossible.
In February 1917, much to the shock and disappointment of her parents and the Lewis family, Owen married the psychoanalyst Ernest Jones
Ernest Jones
Alfred Ernest Jones was a British neurologist and psychoanalyst, and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and became its leading exponent in the English-speaking world where, as President of both the British Psycho-Analytical...
. Jones was the leading exponent in Britain of Freud’s ideas and an avowed atheist. It was reported that Ruth Lewis refused to even meet him. There is some evidence that Jones was unsupportive of Owen’s musical career; in a letter of 20 February 1917 to Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, Jones indicated that the 1917 Aeolian Hall concert was to be Owen’s final public appearance. However, Owen did perform again, presenting the premiere performance of Harry Farjeon
Harry Farjeon
Harry Farjeon was a British composer.He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey, USA, the eldest son of Jewish author Benjamin Farjeon, and Margaret, the daughter of American actor Joseph Jefferson. His parents returned to Britain when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead in London for the rest of his...
’s song cycle A Lute of Jade in July 1917 at the Birkenhead National Eisteddfod.
In the summer of 1918, whilst travelling in South Wales with Jones, Owen developed a sudden and acute case of appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
. She died after an emergency operation on September 7 due to delayed chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
poisoning. She was buried in Oystermouth Cemetery on the outskirts of Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
where her gravestone bears the inscription, chosen by Jones from Goethe's Faust: "Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist's getan" - "Here the indescribable is done."
Though Owen only composed seriously for just over 10 years, she was able to produce 180 compositions. These include pieces for chamber ensemble, piano, mixed choir and tone poems for orchestra. However, it is her compositions for voice and piano that are regarded as her most important and mature contributions. Her most well known include "Slumber Song of the Madonna", "To our Lady of Sorrows", "Suo Gan", and her masterpiece in Welsh, "Gweddi'r Pechadur”. There were also some 22 hymn tunes and several anthems. After her death, Jones and Corder arranged for the publication of a four-volume memorial edition of her work for voice and piano
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
(Anglo-French Music Company Ltd, London 1924). Thanking Jones for the copy he sent her, her close friend Elizabeth Lloyd wrote, "Each page brought fresh memories of our lost darling". A centenary edition was published in Cardiff in 1991.
Discography
Owen continues to be a revered figure of Welsh musical tradition, and many of her works have been recorded in compilations of Welsh songs and music. Some of these include:- Great Welsh Songs performed by Stuart Burrows and John Constable, recorded by Enigma, 1978 (LP)
- Composers of Wales performed by Janet Price, Kenneth Bowen et al., recorded by Argo, 1974 (LP)
- Y Teulu O’Neill performed by Andrew O’Neill, Dennis O’Neill, et al., recorded by Sain, 1980 (LP)
- Cerddoriaeth Cymru The Music of Wales performed by Osian Ellis, John Scott, et al., recorded by Curiad, 1996 (CD)
- Songs of Dilys Elwyn-Edwards and Morfydd 'llwyn' Owen performed by Helen Field, recorded by Sain, 2005 (CD)