Cwm Rhondda, the great anthem of Wales
“Cwm Rhondda,” “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer,” “Bread of Heaven,” call it what you want, it’s one of the most iconic Welsh songs of all time. Almost a cinematic cliche to be deployed whenever somebody wants to portray the unity of a Welsh community, in films such as “How Green Was My Valley. It was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral, and at Kate Middleton’s wedding (and my wedding too!) It continues to be sung in churches across the entire anglosphere, from Australia to America. Of course, it’s routinely pounded out at rugby matches, although the crowds invariably sing the wrong words: “Feed me till I want no more,” instead of “Feed me now and every more,” being what Michael Ball sings in the video above, while the crowd can be seen mouthing the words they’re used to!
You might be forgiven for assuming therefore that the song is a very old one. The words, in their various versions, are; first published in 1762 by William Williams Pantycelyn, entitled Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd (Prayer for strength for the journey through the world’s wilderness). The first English version was published in 1771 by Peter Williams (no relation to the Welsh author), entitled Prayer for Strength, and introduced the “bread of heaven” concept, which was not present in the Welsh original. In fact, the English version bore little resemblance to the Welsh, being more a rewriting than a “translation”, as such. The standard Welsh version sung today is a translation of the English, not vice versa.
The iconic tune, however, was not composed for the piano until 1905, by John Hughes, for the Pontypridd hymn festival, entitled simply Rhondda, and revised for organ under the name Cwm Rhondda, and first played by Hughes himself at the Hopkinstown chapel, outside Pontypridd.
So when John Ford depicted nineteenth-century coal miners singing on their way home from work in the 1941 film, How Green Was My Valley, the tune was actually barely thirty years old, yet had already conquered the world and fixed itself in popular imagination as the iconic tune of Wales!
That’s quite an achievement!
