Welsh Journals

There is a brief but brilliant appreciation of Edward Thomas, critic and poet, by Edward Garnett, which ends thus Sensitive and shy, Thomas guarded himself from the world by a fine, dry irony, which slightly veiled the poet both austere and ardent in his passion for beauty and the homely things of earth. His lofty, melancholy spirit turned in an eye fastidi- ously grave His figure was tall and spare, his hair at thirty was bleached gold, ills head noble. Among his personal friends were W. H. Hudson, Walter de la Mare, W. H. Davies, and Edward Garnett." WE note that Sir Walford Davies is already at work upon the task laid upon him by the University Council of Music of summoning local conferences to discuss how best to make our local eisteddfodau serve more effectively for the advancement of real musical culture. The immediate credit for demanding that some definite action should be taken in this matter belongs primarily to Mr. E. T. Davies, of Bangor. His views were set out fully last summer in this journal in his articles on The Musical Outlook in Wales." The kernel of Mr. Davies's case for national self-criticism :s contained in these phrases We do not realise how limited is our musical horizon, nor face the fact that the potential talent, principally vocal, in our midst !5 being allowed to remain unnurtured and undeveloped. There is possibly no country where amazing vocal powers and unmistakable musical intuition go hand in hand so complacently with comparative musical ignorance Nothing is more urgent at the moment than the reform of the eisteddfod Some central and authoritative body is necessary to guide eisteddfod committees, to instruct and help competitors (and here we think he means to include conductors), and to stimulate a bigger output of vocal and instrumental music of the requisite standard." Here is a field of usefulness for the Council of Music which they will enter upon with enlightenment and with zeal; and we believe that all lovers of our most character- istic local institutions will very gladly respond to the helping hand which is now being offered to them. If there is one thing more than another that we, as a people, are prone to decline to pay the full price for, it is the attainment of sheer excellence in all that we undertake. We are too easily satisfied with less than the best, because the best demands so much effort. We admire doniau," regarding them presumably as gifts from the £ ods but we refuse to recognise that in the approach to any form of human perfection, we must needs be ardent and constant co-workers with the immortals. It is not enough to be appreciative receivers of their favours. The first step is to institute a strict and courageous criticism of our ways. A habit or custom is not necessarily good, even for Wales, simply because it happens to be one into which we have drifted or which we have ourselves at some time acquired. Mr. E. T. Davies has something to say, too, on the question of organisation. It is often difficult to understand how local committees, which generally include shrewd and methodical business men, can condone the unpunctuality, delay, and disorder which are so characteristic of many of our local eisteddfodau." Whether our friends of Y Ddraig Goch would regard this criticism as a step towards anghym- reictod remains to be seen. We hope not. It would grieve us to think that punctuality, and despatch, and orderliness were qualities so antipathetic to the Welsh genius as to be better left uncultivated in Wales. AND now Beriah is dead. The sad news of his passing brought back to our mind inevitably Walt Whitman's immortal poem, Pioneers 0 Pioneers Come, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols ? Have you your sharp- edged axes? Pioneers! 0 Pioneers!