Chronicle

Music

A particularly strong part of the popular culture of the valleys was a love for music and especially for participation in the making of music. The Male Voice Choir groups in the valleys of South Wales helped Wales earn her reputation as 'the land of song' and mass choirs became a part of everyday life.

In the locality, the Caerphilly Male Voice Choir and the Tredegar Orpheus Male Voice Choir were the two great emergent choirs. The Orpheus Male Voice Choir was formed in 1909 when two choirs, a glee party and a small chapel choir, combined. From its inception the choir was a keen participant in all the popular choral contests, competing in 150 Eisteddfodau and winning 136 first prizes. Unfortunately, the major prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales has so far eluded them.

Brass and Silver Bands became just as famous and were associated with collieries and mines. Indeed, there is history of a Bedwas band dating back to the early 1900's. The present band was formed in 1972, when Cynan Jones, a native of Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales, came to work as a brass teacher in the Caerphilly area and decided to form a band. Some of the instruments had been inherited from the old Windsor Colliery band in Abertridwr and in some cases had to be shared by players. The B.T.M Band decided to start competing in 1975 in the Welsh Regional Championships, where they achieved a credible 5th place.

The Tonic Sol-fa system helped the members of Choirs, Bands, Opera Societies and Orchestras to read music, and thousands of people learned music through this medium. Two other indications of this passion for music in valley communities were both the pianos so often to be found in miners' homes and also the naming of sons as Haydn, Handel etc., after great composers.

The Annual Eisteddfod

The competitions in which brass bands and male voice choirs participated were often ones organised by the Eisteddfod movement. The Eisteddfod had its roots deep in Welsh history and following a revival in the 1820s, by the end of the 19th century it had become a form of mass popular entertainment in most of Wales. The National Eisteddfod received a boost in 1858, and with the coming of the railways people flocked to the National and the other large eisteddfodau (known as semi-nationals) to support their local choirs, poets and writers. The standard of literature in these competitions was not necessarily very high, but the opportunity they gave to ordinary people to express and enjoy themselves was perhaps the important thing about them. It was not at national or semi-national level that the Eisteddfod movement was at its strongest, however, for in most valley communities hardly a week would pass without a Church, Chapel, Friendly Society or scores of other organisations, holding a local Eisteddfod.

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