Welsh Journals

past? This, after all, is essentially a festival of folk culture, which is or should be a living, growing phenomenon. Such a festival ought surely to try to represent a maximum continuity between the cherished things of the past and the best conceivable for the future, and that means discovering and coming to terms with the creative aspects of con- temporary culture. Let me admit at once that this is not easy anywhere and in Wales peculiarly difficult. On the one hand, the nonconformist tradition, which wrought great things years ago, hasn't a spark of life left in it. On the other hand, the recent revival in urban folk music-making in England appears to be passing us by in Wales. A L Lloyd, the English authority on folk music, recently told me that he had spent many dispiriting weeks in Wales looking for the folk songs of industrialisa- tion and found almost nothing, in contrast to a rich harvest in the coal- fields of the north of England and the Midlands. This is doubtless largely the result of the surpassing status of written music in the Principality; the oral tradition of song-making has been sadly en- feebled, though there is, it seems to be, a silver lining-that one shining exception at the Albert Hall-catlu penillion, which has somehow sur- vived the worst that nonconformity could do. It is surely not an im- modest claim to say that penillion singing is by far the most promising growing point in Welsh folk culture today. In terms of flexibility and creative potential, quite apart from its discrete traditional role, it offers unique advantages. Any secondary school in Wales which does not teach penillion singing to its pupils is failing utterly in its cultural responsibilities. I am not suggesting that penillion should dominate the programme at the Albert Hall, though it might profitably oust more of the hoary old favourites. I cite it chiefly because it is the sole example in the pro- gramme of a developing cultural strong point. The fact is that young people in Wales, just as in England, are coming to terms with mass media in all sorts of interesting ways, and that we are only at the very beginnings of a new exciting secular alternative to the now lifeless traditions of nonconformity. But it is getting no encouragement at the Albert Hall. Can that hallowed place not be the sounding board of vox Gwalia in all its ranges, however discordant they may be to the presbyterian ear ? Few scholars, however tough, are immune from anxiety. DAVID LLEWELLYN M P.