William Owen (composer)

Portrait of Owen c.1875

William Owen, also known by his Welsh name Prysgol, (December 1813 – 20 July 1893) was a Welsh hymn writer. Born at Bangor, he composed the Welsh hymn tune Bryn Calfaria and other works, among his best known being the anthem Ffynnon Ddisglair and the hymns Alma and Deemster.

Life and career

William Owen, widely known in Wales as William Owen Prysgol,[1] was the son of William and Ellen Owen. His father was a mason in a quarry.[2] The boy grew up in Bethesda, Gwynedd, where at ten years of age he entered his father's profession.[2][3] He had music instructions in classes of Robert Williams at Carneddi, and of William Roberts.[2] He was of several Welsh hymn writers who had been a member of The Society of Religious Singers in Bethesda during his formative years.[4][a] He later worked at the Dorothea Slate Quarry, and is said to have composed his most famous work, the hymn Bryn Calfaria (Calvary Hill), on slate at his place of work.[6][b]

Owen was engaged with the temperance movement, composing several temperance pieces, some of which were performed at events at Caernarfon Castle.[2] Among his best known works, after Bryn Calfaria, are the anthem Ffynnon Ddisglair (Bright Well) and the hymns Alma and Deemster.[8][9]

He married a woman from Prysgol, a farmhouse near Caeathro,[2][10] a few kilometers inland from Caernarfon,[11] where he lived then. He died on 20 July 1893, aged 79, and is buried in Caeathro chapel burial ground.[2]

Footnotes

1. At the age of 18, after composing a new tune as a setting for the words of a well-known hymn, Owen was reportedly told that the need was rather for new words to existing, well-known, tunes.[5]
2. Bryn Calfaria was later adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams as an organ prelude for The English Hymnal.[7]

References

1. McCann, Forrest M. (1997). Hymns and History: An Annotated Survey of Sources. Abilene Christian University Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-89112-058-2.
2. Griffith, Richard David (1959). "Owen, William (William Owen of Prysgol, 1813 – 1893), musician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
3. Luff, Alan (1990). Welsh Hymns and Their Tunes: Their Background and Place in Welsh History and Culture. Stainer & Bell. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-0-916642-42-6.
4. Owen, Trefor M. (1991). The Customs and Traditions of Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-7083-1118-9.
5. "William Owen Prysgol". Praise Trust. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
6. Stephens, Meic (1986). "Bryn Calfaria". The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales. Oxford University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-19-211586-7.
7. "A Vaughan Williams Hymnal". Trinity College, Cambridge. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
8. "William Owen, Prysgol, Papers". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
9. Roberts, T. R. (1908). Eminent Welshmen: A Short Biographical Dictionary. Educational Publishing Company. p. 390. ISBN 978-0-7884-3771-7.
10. Cadw. "Prysgol (Grade II) (3687)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
11. Harvard University Hymn Book. Harvard University Press. 1964. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-674-38000-4.

External links

• Bryn Calfaria (The National Library of Wales) [1]
• Coflein entry for Prysgol RCAHMW