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John Thomas - Pencerdd Gwalia
(1826-1913)

‘Voila comment jouer la harpe’ wrote Hector Berlioz on 2 March 1854. John Thomas, the subject of his comment, was born in Bridgend, South Wales, on St David’s Day, 1 March 1826. He was the eldest of seven children, four of whom became harpists. His father, also named John Thomas, was a tailor by trade, but he was a good amateur musician who played clarinet in the town band. Little John is said to have been playing piccolo in the band at the age of six, but it was the harp that he was determined to play, and an old one was obtained for him. This was a Welsh triple harp and John Thomas was playing it in traditional style (with his left hand playing the treble and his right hand playing the bass) when he won a new Bassett Jones triple harp at the Eisteddfod organised by Lady Llanover at Abergavenny in October 1838.

He was only twelve years old, and created a sensation. Invited to London by Sir Charles Morgan, the Eisteddfod president, he made such an impression on Ada, Lady Lovelace, Byron’s daughter, that she offered to pay for three-quarters of his education at the Royal Academy of Music if his father could find the other quarter.

John Thomas went to London. He learned to speak English and he re-learned his harp technique, abandoning the triple harp for one of Erard’s grand new pedal harps, and changing from the traditional Welsh method he had been taught, transferring the harp to his right shoulder, so that now his right hand played the treble and his left hand played the bass. His harp teacher was John Balsir Chatterton whom he eventually followed, both as Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and as Harpist to the Queen.

John Thomas became harpist to the Royal Italian Opera in 1850. The season ran from March to mid-July, so the appointment gave him the liberty to tour the continent as a soloist in the winter months. This he did from 1851, and over the next few years he visited France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Austria. In Vienna he was greeted as the natural successor to Parish Alvars, who had died there in 1849, and John Thomas dedicated his famous solo ‘Autumn’ to Countess Esterhazy, Parish Alvars’s main benefactress. 1852 was an important year, with a commission to compose and perform a Philharmonic Society concerto on 3 May; the manuscript of his ‘Minstrel’s Adieu’ dates from 30 July that year. Working at the Italian Opera also gave him a lifelong love of the human voice – in fact, in 1860, he was engaged for a year to the well-known soprano Desirée Artôt, who, in 1868, received (and refused) a proposal of marriage from Tchaikovsky!

At the Aberdare Eisteddfod of 1861, John Thomas was invested with the title of ‘Pencerdd Gwalia’ (Chief Musician of Wales), and in the same year he published his famous Welsh Melodies arranged for the harp. A year later he published his Welsh Melodies for the Voice to resounding success, and on 4 July 1862 he began his series of Grand Concerts of Welsh Music at St James’s Hall, Piccadilly, with a choir of 400 accompanied by a band of twenty harps! These annual concerts continued for 42 years.

John Thomas composed, arranged and published a vast amount of music, especially music for the harp. Harpists owe him a great debt for rescuing the works of Parish Alvars from oblivion and re-publishing them. Favourite works in his repertoire were Parish Alvars’s Serenade, Mandoline and Danse des Fées, and he was also the first in modern times to edit and publish both Handel’s Harp Concerto and Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp. He became Harpist to the Queen in 1871, and at the time of her Golden Jubilee in 1887, he composed a work entitled ‘Cambria’s Homage to our Empress Queen’ for Male Voice Choir and thirteen harps! He gave his last public concert the following year, in June 1888, when his programme included a remarkable performance of ‘Sounds of Ossian’ Parish Alvars’s great posthumous work, then, as now, still in manuscript. Adlais will publish this work in the near future.

Continuing to compose, edit and publish, John Thomas lived on into the twentieth century, and after the death of Queen Victoria, he became Harpist to King Edward VII. His death occurred in London on 19 March 1913.

©Ann Griffiths 2005
www.adlaismusicpublishers.co.uk

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Title		Publisher Cat#
Aeolian Sounds		Adlais 043
Echoes of a Waterfall - Concert Study		Adlais 044
Ffarwel y Telynor - The Minstrel's Adieu to his Native Land		Adlais 045
Ffarwel y Telynor - The Minstrel's Adieu to his Native Land, Special edition for Clarsach harp		Adalis 132
L'Espérance - Mazurka		Adlais 046
Le Soir - Premier Impromptu		Adlais 047
Pensive and Joyous		Adlais 048
Rákóczy Induló		Adlais 095
Rêverie		Harpiana 046
Rhapsody		Adlais 049
Tyrolienne		Adlais 060
Staccato Movement		Adlais 054
The Spinning Wheel - Concert Study		Adlais 055
Dewis Dethol o Ymarferiadau Telyn - Selected Studies for the harp		Adlais 003
Four Romances
Romances - (1) The Tear		Adlais 050
Romances - (2) The Smile		Adlais 051
Romances - (3) The Parting		Adlais 052
Romances - (4) The Remembrance		Adlais 053
Four Seasons
The Seasons (1) Spring		Adlais 056
The Seasons (2) Summer		Adlais 057
The Seasons (3) Autumn		Adlais 058
The Seasons (4) Winter		Adlais 059
Transcriptions (or if marked ** harp composition edited by John Thomas)
Title (click for further info)	Composer	Publisher Cat#
Adagio from Sonata Quasi Fantasia (The Moonlight Sonata)	BEETHOVEN	Adlais 094
Una Furtiva Lagrima from 'L'Elisir d'amore'	DONIZETTI	Adlais 015
Nocturne	DREYSCHOCK	Adlais 016
M'appari tutt'amor from 'Martha'	FLOTOW	Adlais 018
Gigue	HANDEL	Adlais 025
The Harmonious Blacksmith	HANDEL	Adlais 208
Lieder Ohne Worte Volume 1 A selection of 5 "Songs without words"	MENDELSSOHN	Adlais 129
Lieder Ohne Worte Volume 2 A selection of 6 "Songs without words"	MENDELSSOHN	Adlais 131
Souvenir De Portico **	PARISH ALVARS	Adlais 099
Assisa a pie d'un salice, The Willow Song, from 'Otello'	ROSSINI	Adlais 068
Ave Maria	SCHUBERT	Adlais 041
Barcarolle	SCHUBERT	Adlais 228
L'Adieu	SCHUBERT	Adlais 224
The Maiden's Lament	SCHUBERT	Adlais 098
The Promise of Spring	SCHUBERT	Adlais 227
The Wanderer	SCHUBERT	Adlais 097
Fantasia in C minor (Op.35)	SPOHR	Adlais 042

Traditional Welsh Melodies
John Thomas published 24 Welsh Melodies in two volumes. 22 were arrangements of traditional Welsh melodies and two were original works. All are arranged for pedal harp and have been engraved by Adlais Music Publishers and are printed and distributed world-wide by Creighton's Collection
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Title (click for further info)	Publisher Cat#
Ffarwel y Telynor - The Minstrel's Adieu to his Native Land **	Adlais 045
Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn - Watching the Wheat	Adlais 061
Clychau Aberdyfi - The Bells of Aberdovey	Adlais 062
Codiad yr haul - The Rising of the Sun	Adlais 063
Dafydd y Garreg Wen - David of the White Rock	Adlais 064
Llwyn Onn - The Ash Grove	Adlais 065
Merch Megan - Megan's Daughter	Adlais 066
Serch Hudol - Love's fascination	Adlais 089
Syr Harri Ddu - Black Sir Harry	Adlais 093
Nos Galan - Deck the Halls	Adlais 118
Y Gadlys - Of Noble Race was Shenkin	Adlais 119
Merch y Melinydd - The Miller's Daughter	Adlais 149
Rhyfelgyrch Gwyr Harlech - March of the Men of Harlech	Adlais 157
Ar Hyd y Nos - All through the Night	Adlais 158
Morfa Rhuddlan - The Plain of Rhuddlan	Adlais 162
Pêr Alaw - Sweet Richard	Adlais 163
Tros y Garreg - Crossing the Stone	Adlais 165
Codiad yr Ehedydd - Rising of the Lark	Adlais 167
Cwynfan Prydain - Britain's Lament	Adlais 196
Ymadawiad Y Brenin - The Departure of the King	Adlais 197
Riding over the mountain **	Adlais 198
Y fwyalchen - The Blackbird	Adlais 199
Dewch I'r Frwydyr - Come to Battle	Adlais 200
Torriad y Dydd - The Dawn of Day	Adlais 201
** Original melody by John Thomas

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Duets for two harps
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Cat#
Bardic Fantasia on subjects from the author's Dramatic Cantata "Llewelyn"	Adlais 075
Cambria - Set of parts for two harps	Adlais 070
Cambria - full score	Alaw 066
Carmen Duet for two harps on Subjects from Bizet's Carmen	Adlais 090
Gigue - Handel GF tr. John Thomas	Adlais 076
Grand Duet	Adlais 211
March of the Welsh Fusiliers	Adlais 074
Prayer from Rossini's Mose in Egitto (Op. 58)	Adlais 037
Rákóczy Induló	Adlais 096
Scenes of Childhood	Adlais 071
Souvenir Du Nord	Adlais 164
Schubert’s Songs transcribed by John Thomas for two harps or harp & piano
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Cat#
Ave Maria	Adlais 092
The Fountain	Adlais 171
L'Adieu	Adlais 225
Serenade	Adlais 091
The Trout	Adlais 172
Marguerite (Gretchen am Spinnrade, Marguerite au rouet)	Adlais 173

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Single Voice and Harp
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Ref
The Dove / Y 'Deryn Pur	Adlais 206
Crossing the Stone / Tros y Garreg	Adlais 205
The Blackbird / Y Fwyalchen	Adlais 204
March of the Men of Harlech / Rhyfelgyrch Gwyr Harlech	Adlais 190
David of the White Rock / Dafydd y Garreg Wen	Adlais 191
4 Part Choir & Harp
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Ref
Merch Megan / Megan's Daughter	Adlais 210
Codiad yr haul / The Rising of the Sun	Adlais 209
March of the Men of Harlech / Rhyfelgyrch Gwyr Harlech	Adlais 183
David of the White Rock / Dafydd y Garreg Wen	Adlais 186
Ffarwel y Telynor / The Minstrel's Adieu to his Native Land	Adlais 133

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Flute & Harp
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Cat#
Nos Galan - Deck the Halls. Welsh Carol tune	Adlais 156
Cadenzas to Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp	Salvi
Violin & Harp
Title (click for further info)	Publisher Cat#
Prelude for Harp and Violin (Felix Mendelssohn)	Salvi 705610-600
Romance for Harp and Violin	Adlais 189