The National Music of Wales ... continued xxxxxxxxxxxxxpage13
John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia). From Y Cymmrodor, 1878

In the double-action harp, perfected by Erard, each note has its flat, natural and sharp, which is not the case with any other stringed instrument; and this enables the modern harpist to produce those beautiful enharmonic effects which are peculiar to the instrument.

Another remarkable advantage has been attained by this invention - the reduction in the number of strings to one row; which enables the performer not only to keep the instrument in better tune, but to use a thicker string, and thus attain a quality of tone, which, for mellowness and richness, may be advantageously compared with that of any other instrument in existence.

To return to the Welsh triple harp. The increased resources attained by the invention of that instrument, as being so far in advance of any other instrument of its kind, up to that period, gave a powerful impetus to the progress of music in the Principality; and may go far to account for the superior beauty, in an artistic point of view, of the national music of Wales over that of any other country. This fact is admitted by the most eminent writers on music; and, lest I should be considered too partial, as a Welshman, with regard to the music of my native country, I venture to quote Dr. Crotch, a distinguished composer and learned historian, and, for some time, Professor of music in the University of Oxford, and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music. In the first volume of his Specimens of Various Styles of Music, referred to in his course of lectures, he writes as follows:-

"British and Welsh music may be considered as one, since the original British music was, with the inhabitants, driven into Wales. It must be owned, that the regular measure and diatonic scale of the Welsh music is more congenial to the English taste in general, and appears at first more natural to experienced musicians than those of the Irish and Scotch. Welsh music not only solicits an accompaniment; but, being chiefly composed for the harp, is usually found with one; and, indeed, in harp tunes, there are often solo passages for the bass as well as for the treble. It often resembles the scientific music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and there is, I believe, no probability that this degree of refinement was an introduction of later times."

Further on, he continues:-

"The military music of the Welsh seems superior to that of any other nation. In the German marches, the models of the English, most of the passages are noisy, interspersed with others that are trifling, and even vulgar. In those of France also there is much noise, together with chromatic and other scientific passages. The Scotch Highland marches, called Ports, are wild warbles, which might (and, indeed, upon many occasions did, in a remarkable degree) inspire courage, but which could not answer the purpose of regulating the steps. But in the Welsh marches, 'The March of the Men of Harlech', 'The March of the Men of Glamorgan', and also a tune called 'Come to Battle', there is not too much noise, nor is there vulgarity nor yet misplaced science. They have a sufficiency of rhythm without its injuring the dignified character of the whole, which, to use the words of the poet, is -

". . . Such as rais'd
To height of noblest temper heroes of old
Arming to battle; and, instead of rage,
Deliberate valour breath'd."
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