FTX-351 - THE BELLS OF ABERDOVEY

NANSI RICHARDS - Triple Harp

26 tunes, including late 18th Century & early 19th airs, collected by John Parry and Edward Jones, as well as hornpipes & dance tunes learned from Welsh Romany gipsies and street buskers. Nansi talks about learning from David and Cornelius Wood, gipsies camped near her farm. She can be heard playing for the famous Welsh gipsy clog-dancer, Hywel Wood. The triple harp, made entirely of wood, and, though being very hard to master, Nansi believed to be far superior to the more popular metal concert harps used today.

1. THE MEN OF HARLECH (talk before) - 2.34

2. THE ROBERT'S BREAK-DOWN (talk bef) - 0.46

3. THE GIPSY'S HORNPIPE with variations (talk bef) - 2.25

4. Repeated for clog-dancer, Hywel Wood (with applause) - 1.40

5. THE WREXHAM HORNPIPE (talk before about David Wood) - 1.25

6. HORNPIPE No.1 with variations (talk bef) - 4.33

7. NOS CALAN (New Year's Eve) - 0.53

8. THE FAIRIES REEL - 1.18

9. MOEL YR WYDDFA (Snowdon's Heights) - 1.14

10. NAPOLEON'S MARCH/ THE TAVERN IN THE TOWN - 1.03

11. CODIAD YR HEDYDD (The Rising of the Lark) with variations - 2.04

12. RHYTH WYTH (The Peacemakers Hornpipe) - 1.14

13. LLWYN ON (The Ash Grove) - 1.27

14. HORNPIPE No.2 with variations - 2.36

15. THE BELLS OF ABERDOVEY with variations - 2.27

16. PANT CORLAN YR WYN with variations - 3.59

17. SICILIAN MINSTRELS with variations - 3.31

18. THE QUEEN'S MARCH - 1.44

19. GALLIARD (Trabaci) - 1.45

20. BALLET - 1.46

21. COUNT SAX'S MINUET with variations (Parry) - 4.47

22. ARIA (Parry) - 0.48

23. MARCH OF RHUDDIAN - 2.42

24. CAER WAEN - 1.14

25. CAINC DAFYDD BROFFWYD - 1.10

26. CASTEL RUTHIN - 0.56

27. MORFA'R FRENHINES - 1.30

Recorded & edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1980.

NANSI RICHARDS (JONES) was born on the 14th.May 1888 and died on the 21st. December 1979. Her interest in the harp began at the age of 10 when she surreptitiously crept into a bedroom where she was staying and played in her nightdress. She owned her first harp at 12. Her first teacher was Tom Lloyd, who won first prize at the Chicago World's Fair, both for making and playing. Nansi attended the Guildhall School of Music in London for only one year, leaving to join the comedienne, "Happy" Fanny Fields on the Music Halls.

Fanny Fields was famous for her Laughing Songs and for the Frog Dance, and Nansi learned to do various stunts such as playing with her back to the harp and playing two different tunes on two harps at the same time. She also learned a great deal from travelling street musicians and from Welsh Romanies, such as John Roberts of Newtown, who, together with his 9 sons, played before Queen Victoria. From both the Roberts and the Woods families she learned hornpipes and dance-tunes and, on a number of occasions, she played for the Gipsy Wood's clog- dancing.

Nansi toured America extensively in 1923 and returned 50 years later to give a recital in New York in 1973. In between these dates she played in Britain giving over 2,000 performances with Cor Telyn Eryri and others. She was official harpist for the Welsh Eisteddfod for a number of years and frequently appeared on radio and television.

In 1967 she was awarded the MBE for her services to music in Wales and received an honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Wales in 1977. She published a volume of her reminiscences, entitled CRWPWRDD NANSI, in 1972, and another one followed later.

Nansi told us that the best TRIPLE HARP makers were the Richards of Llanwryst in the late 18th Century and Basset Jones in Cardiff. The triple harp is held against the left shoulder and the accidentals played with the left hand.