Welsh Journals

piace at the head of all composers in this genre. Less strikingly original than Weelkes, Wilbye treated the madrigal form with a nobility and dignity that are unsurpassed, and "Seek sweet content," which is set for the juvenile choirs, is a good example of his work. Other composers of the school represented in the programme are John Bennett, Henry Youll, and Francis Pilking- ton, while Robert Jones, one of the most famous composers of "ayres" for voice and viol accom- paniment, is represented in the juvenile section by "Go to bed, sweet muse," which is set for unison singing. The same high promise that is revealed in the choral classes is maintained throughout this ex- cellent programme. The solo vocalists are set first-rate music which will effectively test not only their technique but also their musicianship, while an admirable innovation is the introduction of a special class for the winners of solo competitions in which each entrant must sing, in addition to WALES THROUGH SPANISH EYES by Captain Rafael Inda of the Spanish Merchant Marine. IT was in Cardiff, a month or so ago, I remem- ber, and a Saturday night. My ship had com- pleted her discharge of iron ore and was moored under the tips ready to load her "full and complete" cargo of Welsh coal the first shift Monday morning. I wandered up into the City and chanced to examine some old journals in a little Welsh bookshop, among which I discovered two copies of the Welsh Outlook, the one of the January month, the other of the February month. I took them back to the ship, but I did not read them. I threw them down on to the settee in my cabin, where they got smothered in an accumula- tion of Spanish and French illustrated magazines. And it is now on my return voyage that I read them. and it is with what great joy and interest that I read the article by Geraint V. Jones, M.A., on "Individualism and Literature," in which he compares the two countries, Spain and Wales, and the two similar temperaments, the Welsh and the Spanish. For, quite strangely, I heard a man saying in a cafe just before I left Bilbao, that he thought our great Migel de Unamuno, who was exiled to the Canary Islands, was com- parable strongly to a Welsh Divine It is certain now that I shall read the Welsh Outlook every month. But now I wish to say what we Spaniards think of Wales. I must write quickly. Pedro, my steward, has just brought me my afternoon glass of coffee and cognac and he tells me that José the officer on watch, has just sighted Ushant. If one of the test-pieces, a song selected from the works of the classical masters or a modern song of definite artistic merit. Test-pieces in the instrumental classes are on the same high level, and special provision is made for chamber music teams. This is likely to be a particularly valuable feature of the eisteddfod, for there is no form of music-making more de- lightful than chamber music and none so con- ducive to the growth of true musicianship among those who practise it. Altogether, the Bangor "National" promises to make history in Welsh music. At the least it marks a definite stride forward-a stride which takes the eisteddfod into comparatively new and unexplored country, where, perhaps, it will find a new impulse to reach out toward the highest musical ideals. And this impulse alone will estab- lish it in its proper place as the guardian and inspirer of Welsh music. is stormy, the wind whistles through the ventil- ators, the ash buckets rattle in the stokehold shaft, and shortly my ship will be labouring in the troughs of those waters which meet so fiercely those of the Bristol Channel, the English Channel and the Atlantic, mv books and papers will slide to the floor, and my pen will lurch across the pag^ sc that I will not be able to write whatsoever may be also, my presence will be wanted on the bridge. I must apologise for my personal style of writ- ing. Kind Welsh reader, pardon me. Like you, I cannot write other than as my "yo" dictates, my "Hunan," my "Ego." I and all my crew, except the engineers, are from a little fishing village on the Bay of Biscay. What Wales is to England so is what our Basque Province is to Spain. We have our Biscian Tan- gos, our national folklore and customs. Only a few weeks ago some friends of mine who attended a Nationalist meeting in a cafe in a Biscian vil- lage were arrested for singing the Biscian National song, and I for writing of this incident in a foreign paper might also be arrested What Cardiff is to Wales so Bilbao is to Bis- caya the best sailors in Spain are recruited from the little fishing villages on the Biscian coast, just as, I have been told, the best Welsh sailors come from the Cardiganshire coast and there around, and it is they who come back and tell Papa and Mamma about Wales, although usually Papa was himself a sailor, and his father before