Welsh Journals

Y Cerddor: Periodical of the People DELYTH MORGANS The second half of the nineteenth century was a prolific period for the publication of musical journals in Welsh. Twenty-eight years after the appearance of Y Cerddor Cymreig, 'the first significant attempt to establish a musical journal',1 Y Cerddor emerged on 1 January 1889. From the outset, two editors the self-taught composer D. Emlyn Evans and the Aberystwyth academic David Jenkins2 oversaw publication. However, William Morgan Roberts (1853-1923) of Llangynog, Monmouthshire, then working for the Wrexham pub- lishers, Hughes and son, was the catalyst: Cyn terfynnu fy ngwaith fel Ysgrifennydd Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Gwrecsam, 1888, yr oeddwn wedi trefnu gyda Mri. Hughes a'i Fab i gychwyn misolyn cerddorol Cymreig, ac yn fuan wedyn trefnais gyda'r diweddar Mr. Emlyn Evans, ac yn ddilynol gyda Mr. David Jenkins, i ddarparu erthyglau, &c., a rhyngom i gario allan y syniad o ddarparu misolyn cerddorol i Gymru.3 [Before finishing my work as Secretary of the National Eisteddfod at Wrexham in 1888, I had arranged with Messers Hughes and son to start a monthly musical periodical in Welsh, and shortly afterwards I arranged with the late Mr Emlyn Evans, and subsequently with Mr David Jenkins, to produce articles etc, and between us to carry out the idea of preparing a musical 'monthly' for Wales.] The editors steered a middle course, their motto 'not to serve a par- ticular person or party, south or north, traditional notation or sol-fa, but Welsh music in general'.4 Y Cerddor consequently appealed to a broad audience by encompassing several types of music; Gareth Williams sees it as a condensing of the earlier musical journals.5 Seven types of material were included: articles, biographies, lessons, reports or histories, judgements and reviews, poetry and musical sup- plements. In seeking to produce a standard periodical which would be 'of honour to the generation', the editors saw their task as 'a matter of