Rhosymedre is the name of a hymn tune written by the 19th-century Welsh

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...

 Anglican

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 priest John David Edwards

John David Edwards

John David Edwards was a Welsh cleric and hymn-tune composer.-Life:Edwards was born in Penderlwyngoch, Gwnnws, in Ceredigion in Wales. After education at Ystrad Meurig school, he attended Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating in 1825 and obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1830...

. Edwards named the tune after the village of Rhosymedre

Rhosymedre

Rhosymedre is a village near Ruabon in north east Wales. The village is within the community of Cefn and the county borough of Wrexham.The Anglican church, which was consecrated in 1837, is dedicated to St John the Evangelist, and is part of the Diocese of St Asaph...

 near Ruabon

Ruabon

Ruabon is a village and community in the county borough of Wrexham in Wales.More than 80% of the population of 2,400 were born in Wales with 13.6% speaking Welsh....

 in north-east Wales, where he was the vicar from 1843 until his death in 1885. The hymn tune is seven lines long, with a metrical index of 6.6.6.6.8.8.8. It appears in a number of hymnals and is sung to a variety of words.

The tune was used by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

 as the basis of the second movement of his organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 composition "Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes". This is probably best-known as an orchestral arrangement by Arnold Foster published in 1938.

The prelude has been arranged for other instruments or combinations of instruments, including solo piano, piano duet and four recorders. In 2008, to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Vaughan Williams, Richard Morrison (chief music critic of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

) arranged the piece for string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 and solo tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

. The first performance took place in May 2008, with James Gilchrist

James Gilchrist (tenor)

James Gilchrist is a British tenor specialising in recital and oratoria singing. He began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time music career in 1996...

singing the words of the hymn.