Welsh Journals

The Cosmopolitan Aspect of John Thomas, 'Pencerdd Gwalia' (1826-1913) CARYS ANN ROBERTS John Thomas, 'Pencerdd Gwalia' (1826-1913) claims a unique pos- ition in the cultural history of Wales, not least because his harp compositions and exercises remain so popular today with performers. In 1994 a sizeable new collection of his letters and concert pro- grammes, together with the diaries of his continental travels between 1851 and 1874, were presented to the British Library from an unknown source. This hitherto unexplored material, which I was allowed to have transferred to the National Library of Wales for convenience of access, forms the subject of this article. John Thomas left South Wales for the great city across Offa's Dyke in 1840. Home to more musical activities than any other European city, London had already become the main cultural and social centre in Britain during the eighteenth century.2 Music-making in the provinces, where patronage had all but disappeared by 1800, revolved increasingly around amateurs. Ann Rosser obseives that a harpist in eighteenth-century Wales would have felt most at home in the tavern;3 consequently, those seeking a serious musical career had no choice but to leave their homeland behind. The Welsh harpists John Parry Ddall (Blind John Parry, c.1710?- 82) and Edward Jones, 'Bardd y Brenin' (1752-1824) had already made their mark within London musical circles, and John Thomas the elder was not unwilling for his youngest son to imitate their success, moving his whole family to London from Bridgend in 1840. John Thomas junior, then aged fourteen, entered the Royal Academy of Music during September of that year, under the patronage of Lady Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron. He was taught by John Balsir Chatterton (1805-71), a pupil of N. C. Bochsa (1789-1856) and Labarre (1805-70); Chatterton had been appointed professor of harp at the Academy in 1827, and was to become harpist to Queen Victoria in 1840. Every one of the five surviving reports on John