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“Mae brawd gan Blodeuwedd, a'i enw yw Blodeuben.”
“Blodeuwedd has a brother, and his name is Blodeuben.”
I’ve always been interested in the stories of the Mabinogion ever since my Grandmother used to tell them to me when I was small.
I’ve rewritten the story of Blodeuwedd so that she has a brother, Blodeuben, who becomes Gwydion’s lover.
“He lifted his arms and circled the remaining flowers, chanting under his breath. As he circled widdershins, the flowers began to glow again. He watched as the flowers melted together and formed the body and limbs of a beautiful young man, who sprung out of the pit into Gwydion's waiting arms.”
The Erlking is borrowed from German literature. In Wales he is
Y Gwernfrenin, and he’s here for your sons.
“Pwy sy'n marchogaeth mor hwyr trwy'r nos?
Y tad sydd yno, gyda'i blentyn tlos;
Mae'n meddwl mae’r bachgen yn iawn dan ei fraich,
Mae’n dal e’n dynn, trwy ystod y daith.”
“Who is that riding so late through the night?
The father holds his little son tight;
He thinks he’s safe, tucked under his arm,
He holds him tight, he’ll not come to harm."
The three sons of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy, born as a wolf cub, a fawn, and a wild boar piglet, are adopted by Math Mathonwy.
“Math then called the wolf and she-wolf, Gwydion and Gilfaethwy, and struck them both with his wand and they returned to their own trembling flesh.
Too scared to look at each other, unable to look at anything else.”
I wanted to make something that sounded and felt as Welsh as the tales that inspired it.
Diolch
Andy x
7 tracks, plus a bonus track, for £1.
I blogged about this in 2010, but then I forgot all about it! I wasn't on Soundcloud then either, so didn't have anywhere to host my sound experiments. Here's the original blog post:
Night on Bald Mountain is a fantasy for orchestra that was composed by Modest Mussorgsky; and based on a tone poem of his. The original tone poem was called St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain and had a Witches' Sabbath as its theme. He completed it on June the 23rd 1867; on St. John's Eve, and exactly a hundred and ten years before I was born. I've always been drawn to this piece of music, ever since I saw Disney's Fantasia when I was little. Now that I know more about its evolution and history, I love it even more.
I thought it was about time that Fflwcs had a go at making a version of Bald Mountain. I use all the original score, but have tried to emphasise the otherworldliness of the piece, and also the downright scariness of it. Wales has so many beautiful mountains, and lots of my childhood was spent climbing them, so I think that has inspired me and my love of this Mussorgsky work. There is a legend in Wales: if you sleep on the summit of Cader Idris, when you wake up you'll either be mad, or a poet. My Mam used to joke that if I slept up there I'd wake up exactly the same.
After the franticness of my Musical Advent Calendar in December last year, to raise money for Shelter Cymru; I've been doing some musical experimentation. I've made a few tracks and remixes using hann stretch techniques, and some of my selfmade VSTs. Drone, noise, experimental, ambient fuckery.
The tracks feel like they go together, so I made them into this little EP. Free to download, as always.
Day 25 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Day 25 - the final track! Thanks to all who donated to my Musical Advent Calendar for Shelter Cymru, you have helped make a massive difference. This song isn't strictly a Christmas song, but Oliver is always on at Christmastime and I wantred a song for my wonderful fiancé Chris. It's also now Christmas Day, so Nadolig Llawen i chi gyd!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 24 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is another bonkers 8-bit bit of loveliness was sponsored by equally bonkers and lovely (and all round darling) Julian Rosser.
It's Christmas Eve and I'm on £590, let's see if we can get it a bit higher for this amazing charity - the donation page is open for a few more months, so if you're feeling flush after Christmas, please donate then.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 23 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a rather special one. I collaborated with my good friend Kitt of Jesus in Love, to make a new inclusive, queer version of this lovely song. Extra special thanks to Kitt, Audrey and Three-Turtle Man for sending me such excellent ideas, music and love all the way from LA. This was probably the hardest of all the tracks to do, but I love how it turned out.
Kitt will also be promoting this on her blog, and she has kindly allowed me to use her text:
**
A Rainbow Version of the Christmas carol "Some Children See Him" was released today. It has a new straight/queer stanza added to the standard multiracial lyrics.
"Some Children See Him" is a delightfully liberating song about how children imagine the baby Jesus looking like them. It has a verse for every race -- so why not a verse for every sexual orientation?
Here are the new lines that I wrote:
Some children see him straight as they
Playing like most boys play
Some children see him straight as they
Straight but not narrow.
Some children see him queer or gay
Because some kids are born that way
Some children see him queer or gay
The rainbow child of God.
I even sing on the new track. Our band is called "Kitt and Andy and the Splott Queer Community Singers."
My co-leader Andrew Craig Williams is a queer artist and music maker in Wales. He and many of his queer friends live in an area of Cardiff called Splott.
http://andrewcraigwilliams.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splott
Andy often provides queer Christian art for the Jesus in Love Blog. When he asked me to suggest songs for his Musical Advent Calendar, I offered to write some queer lines for "Some Children See Him."
He was immediately enthusiastic and started organizing a group to sing it. I thought he would record everyone singing together in Splott, so I was flabbergasted when he asked, "Is there any way you could record you and Audrey singing?"
I live in Los Angeles, home of the recording industry, so it turned out that there was a way -- with the help of a mystery co-producer behind the scenes in true Hollywood tradition. My life partner Audrey and I are raw amateurs when it comes to singing, so it was rather embarrassing when we got the star treatment at the professional recording studio of a friend, who shall be known here only as Three Turtle Man. But somehow it made sense because it was all for the cause of showing God's unconditional love.
The church has often excluded LGBT people from Christmas festivities, so we all made our best efforts in the spirit of Christ who was born in lowly circumstances to embody God's wildly inclusive love for all.
Andy mixed both our voices into the final version along with heavenly synths, piano, strings, and maybe a bell or two. We are a truly international group, with singers from Wales, England and America.
"Our singers hail from American, Welsh, English, Scottish descent," Andy said. "How's that for multicultural!! A wide range of beliefs too; people from Anglican, Catholic, MCC, pagan, and atheist backgrounds. Wowsers!!"
The Musical Advent Calendar is a fundraiser for Shelter Cymru, a charity for the homeless in Wales. Donations can be made at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/andywills
If you like our Rainbow Version of "Some Children See Him," please consider making a donation at my GoFundMe page for Jesus in Love, a project supporting LGBT spirituality and the arts.
http://www.gofundme.com/5mugns
The original lyrics [link] are great, including these words in the final verse:
http://www.alfredburtcarols.com/burt/Web%20Pages/This%20Is%20Christmas/Childrensee.htm
The children in each different place
will see the baby Jesus' face
like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace,
and filled with holy light.
**
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 22 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a collaboration with my lush friend Jane Oriel - she normally sings the blues, but she turned into a folk mistress just for me! Thank you sweetheart.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 21 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a collaboration with lovely Matt Cook (who did most of the work on this one!)
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 20 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a mediaeval chiptune.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 18 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is super late, busy day in work, then a terrifying drive back to West Wales in torrential rain!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 18 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is super late, busy day in work, then a terrifying drive back to West Wales in torrential rain!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 17 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a whole orchestra (well, all me) doing Ave Maria.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 16 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Today is a really old Welsh folk dance tune, that you might recognise as a carol. Oer yw'r gŵr sy'n methu caru.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 15 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru.
Why not donate a fiver, then join me for a sleigh ride!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 14 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today's tune is also to celebrate Andrea's birthday, Happy Birthday Andz! And was also sponsored by loads of people - it's a very famous song, after all.
Cath and I changed the words and Cardiffised it right up!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 13 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today's tune is also to celebrate my sister's birthday, Happy Birthday Beverley Williams! And was also sponsored by Becca Bowen, diolch cariad. It was made by my gorgeous friends the Pickle Belly Newts - Matt Cook, Sam Evans, Catherine Kerry, Shauna Guinn, Alex Nute, and wouldn't have been at all possible without the lovely Chris Walker. So after all this hard work, lovely music, silly singing, why not donate a fiver?
Mele Kalikimaka! x
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 12 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today is a really old Welsh song, I've loved it since I was little. Nowhere near as good as Cerys Matthews' gorgeous version, but there's no doubting my enthusiasm!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 11 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today is yet another 8-bit electro instrumental, but this one includes live Casio keyboard. Old school!
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 10 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today is another 8-bit electro instrumental (there may be a few more of them before the 25th, as they are easier to do that organise singing etc. and I've already chucked the song order out the window!)
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
Day 9 of my #MusicalAdventCalendar to raise money for Shelter Cymru. Today is more dodgy singing, but like I said yesterday, it's all for charity!
In the bleak midwinter, specially for my faraway friend Audrey.
My donation page
What Shelter Cymru does and why they need our help
