multitude of voyces

Grace Williams (1906–77)

Grace Williams was one of the first professional Welsh composers of the twentieth century to attain significant national recognition, and many of her remarkably distinctive pieces are directly inspired by Wales and its culture. Born in Barry, Glamorganshire, she studied music at Cardiff University (1923–1926), later studying composition at the Royal College of Music (1926–1930) with Ralph Vaughan Williams, and in Vienna with Egon Wellesz (1930–1931). She particularly enjoyed writing for orchestra, and her gift for this medium is apparent in her early overture Hen Walia (1930) and the Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (1940). Williams worked as a successful composer and music teacher in London for many years, but returned to live and work in Barry in 1947. This homecoming sparked a new and vital phase of her creative development. Her Penillion, for orchestra, (1955), for example, is a highly original orchestral adaptation of the metrical and melodic characteristics of traditional Welsh penillion singing (an improvised line over a given melody). Her expanded musical vocabulary energised other significant works for orchestra including the powerful Symphony no. 2 (1956), the Trumpet Concerto (1963) and Ballads, for orchestra (1968). She became more interested in writing more choral and vocal music in her later years. Her choral suite The Dancers (1951) is a radiant example of her skill at handling the choral medium, as is the exquisite Ave Maris Stella (1973) for mixed chorus. 

(Tŷ Cerdd – Music Centre Wales)