Episode 3 Connie's Musical Map of Wales

Connie!

You may remember me

from a place that was Alive With The Sound of Music?

Well, I've been set free to explore a much more beautiful place

where the hills truly are alive with the sound of music.

I'm taking a magical mystery tour to draw my very own musical map of Wales.

I'll be travelling the length and breadth of the country meeting some fabulous people.

I used to be where you are.

All with wonderful talents.

# Which brings us back to doh. #

And amazing tales to share.

Swept off my feet!

Hold on for a bumpy ride.

I haven't driven a car in ten years, it's fine, honestly.

Famous last words.

# High on a hill was a lonely goatherd. #

# Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

# Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd... #

My journey today is taking me round two contrasting parts of Wales.

From the former mining valleys of South Wales,

then across and over the heads of the valleys to the very different

but equally beautiful rural areas of the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains.

My travelling companion is one of the last remaining Welsh-built cars,

the Gilbin, or Gilbert as I call him.

Gilbert's great age and my dodgy driving are proving quite a cheeky combination.

Oh dear! He'll never make it up the valleys.

Let's hope we do, as my journey starts in Merthyr with a question.

What do you think is Wales's most enduring and most recorded love song?

I bet you're saying a Tom or Shirley hit, but I think it's a song

that was created over 100 years ago and has its roots here in Merthyr.

I'm going to test if the people here now can sing

or even remember their great export.

D-D-D, I wish I knew the words.

Do you know Myfanwy, you know anything?

Do you know what the most famous Welsh love song is?

Myfanwy?

Yes! Somebody knows.

# Pa ham mae dicter, O Myfanwy... #

SHE HUMS

HE HUMS

No, I can't sing it!

Many famous names have performed and recorded it.

CERYS MATTHEWS SINGS: # Pa ham mae dicter, O Myfanwy... #

I'm travelling to the birthplace of Joseph Parry,

the man who wrote Myfanwy, to find out more about the song,

why it's lasted so long and been sung by so many stars.

Even little old me!

# O Myfanwy... #

At Joseph Parry's house, exciting!

Joseph Parry was born in 1841

and started working in the mines at the age of nine.

His family house is now a museum in honour of the great man.

When he was 13, his family left Merthyr and emigrated to America in a search for a better life.

He soon showed his musical genius and people raised money to send him to the Royal Academy in London.

He became one of Wales's most famous composers, writing Myfanwy in 1875.

Alwyn Humphreys is one of Wales's former conductors and musicians

and knows the secrets of Myfanwy.

The young man is saying to the girl, Myfanwy,

look I realise you don't love me any more.

Your cheeks don't blush any more, you don't rush towards me.

She hasn't got the guts to tell him that her emotions have cooled.

But he says the crucial line,

"I don't want your hand, Myfanwy, unless I can have your heart as well."

And he says to her in the end,

"Give me your hand just once more to say farewell."

He came from nothing, absolutely nothing, here in Merthyr,

and rose to become the most powerful musical figure in Wales.

What's it about Myfanwy, the song that makes it so popular?

Myfanwy is that piece of music that gets to the parts of the human condition

that no other music can.

I've conducted it all over the world and it's amazing how people

who know nothing about the words, because it's always sung in Welsh.

It's because it's got something in it that appeals directly

into the human condition, it reaches the parts no other music can.

# Myfanwy boed yr holl... #

Perhaps someone will write such a beautiful song for me.

# 0h Connie! #

Doesn't sound quite as romantic, but a girl can dream.

I'm travelling out of the industrial valleys

and 20 miles north towards the cathedral town of Brecon.

You may think talent shows and auditions are a very modern invention,

but I'm going to a place that's been selecting people to appear in the limelight for centuries.

What an entrance! I've always fancied being in Phantom Of the Opera.

Choirs have sung in Brecon Cathedral for centuries

and currently there are 20 children and over a dozen adults singing regularly.

Choir Master Mark Duffy auditions young people each year for a place in the choir.

No pressure then!

We offer places to two or three boys and two or three girls every year,

and they audition at seven to start when they're eight.

Usually we get about 20 people applying.

You're the Simon Cowell of Brecon?

It's a bit different from that really and what we hope is everyone who comes

for the voice trials has enjoyed and benefited from it.

We've chosen the ones who are most suited to it and will enjoy being in the choir.

THEY SING

10-year-old George Stafford Smith has been singing

with the choir for nearly two years after getting through the tough audition.

They chose five of us, one of them was me.

You start your probation and you sing well

and you work your way up to chorister, then you get the blue medal.

Then when you're head chorister, the oldest, you get a dark medal.

You have to give up most of your time, because we're on Wednesdays and Thursdays for practice.

Friday until 7pm for practice and services, and then double on Sunday.

It's always singing around friends and when you're in the choir you make new friends.

THEY SING

So Erin, teach me a little arpeggio or something that would get me into the cathedral choir.

SHE SINGS HIGH NOTES

Again, again.

SHE SINGS EVEN HIGHER NOTES

Watch the windows, watch the windows.

Little Shakira Price-Davies on the left of the three angels,

is just nine years old and has been in the choir for under a year.

When you're singing, what are your favourite pieces to sing?

I like all the bouncy songs.

In this choir you sing in English.

What other languages can you sing in? Cos you're only nine.

Latin.

Wow! Can you give us a line in Latin from any song that you know?

SHE SPEAKS LATIN

What does that mean?

-I don't know.

-It's OK, I don't know either!

Do you sing in Welsh?

Yes.

And you compete in competitions like the Eisteddfods?

Yes, we had it today.

No, what did you sing?

SHE SINGS IN WELSH

That was awesome, that was awesome,

a round of applause that was brilliant.

I'm now off to meet someone who was once a member of the choir himself,

but now he's better known for his very successful solo career.

# Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro

# Figaro...#

Rhydian shot to fame when he was runner up in the X Factor.

I often competed against him

in Eisteddfods around the country when I was growing up.

Rhydian went to Llandovery College and was also in a choir.

Well, briefly.

If truth be told, I'm more of a soloist and I was a soloist from about the age of three.

I kind of wanted to be centre of attention and I always felt,

do I have to sing with everybody?

# Figaro.... #

Did you find that your musical background,

your musical map prepared you for later in life competing on the X Factor?

The Eisteddfods certainly prepared me,

because it's the original X Factor in a way isn't it?

You're performing in front of an audience,

you're on TV and you've a panel judging you.

-When we competed against each other you were very competitive.

-You were vicious!

But I think you matched me.

I certainly did, I'm so competitive.

You were much better than me.

I absolutely wasn't.

And actually I'm going to embarrass you now,

but you inspired me to do the X Factor.

Oh, no.

That's the truth, having seen you do well in Maria,

I was like, OK, I know Connie, we kind of have the same musical background.

Why not have a go at...? I did Joseph, I did the BBC.

You didn't?

I was in Joseph, true story.

So you went in for the Joseph competition with Lee Mead?

And do you know what I said in my audition? "Tell us something interesting about yourself, Rhydian."

I said "I know Connie Fisher."

Absolutely true.

That's really interesting.

"He's cut."

# Ci-i-i-i-itta! #

We've been tracing the history of the song, Myfanwy. Is that one you know?

Myfanwy is my favourite song of all time.

Because it's so simple, the melody, but so beautiful.

Can you give us a couple of lines from it?

Yes, um...

# Pa ham mae dicter, O Myfanwy

# Yn llenwi'th lygaid duon ddi?

# Pa le mae sain dy eiriau melys

# Fu'n denu'n nghalon ar dy ol? #

I feel like-being wooed by Rhydian. I'm a bit moved.

Beautiful, that was... I'm a bit speechless.

I've been serenaded by Rhydian.

And who would have thought Myfanwy would sound so beautiful? Thank you.

Ah! Wiping the tears from my eyes, it's time to hit the road again.

I'm heading out to the heads of the valleys.

I'm travelling just over 20 miles and going back 60 years to dig up

an amazing story that links this part of the world with pre-war America.

I'm rolling down to Blaenavon to find out more about Paul Robeson,

his astonishing voice and his very moving connection with the South Wales miners.

# Old man river, that old man river

# He must know something, But don't say nothing. #

Paul Robeson was born in New Jersey in 1898.

He was a man of prodigious talents and a huge deep voice

and a massive stage and screen presence.

Which made him a star on both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm going to the Big Pit Mining Museum in Blaenavon

to meet historian Sian Williams to trace

the link between Paul Robeson and the Welsh miners, which really began

when he was performing in a musical in London's West End in the 1920s.

He was in Showboat and at that time

that's when he came across the South Wales miners for the very first time.

A group had marched from South Wales to London as one of the hunger marches.

They were fighting for better wages, better working conditions.

Bearing in mind many of them were unemployed.

He could understand immediately what they were fighting for.

The shared experience of hardship and a tradition of singing helped

develop the growing bond. It was strengthened

when Paul Robeson starred in the Hollywood film, Proud Valley,

shot in South Wales.

This fellow brought a black man to work down the pit.

Well?

What about it?

Damn and blast it, man, aren't we all black down the pit?

LAUGHTER

He'd appear in concerts, not only to raise money for the miners,

but for lots of different struggles.

One concert he attended in 1938 in Mountain Ash was a memorial

to those who had died in the Spanish Civil War.

Paul Robeson's support for civil rights and radical causes in America

led him to be blacklisted for un-American behaviour.

His passport was withdrawn in 1950,

but that didn't stop his friendship with people across South Wales.

New technology allowed a unique transatlantic radio link in 1957.

My warmest greetings to the people of my beloved Wales,

and a special hello to the miners of South Wales

at this great festival.

# Did my Lord deliver?

# Daniel delivered Daniel delivered, Daniel

# Did my Lord deliver...? #

Paul sang five songs

and then the Treorchy male voice choir sang to him

and the Eisteddfod recording finishes

with the whole audience singing We'll Keep A Welcome In The Hillside.

# We'll keep a welcome in the hillside... #

Paul Robeson died on 23rd January, 1976

and in many valleys across Wales

there was a moment's silence to mark the end of a very special friendship.

# When you come home, sweet home, again... #

Wow, what an amazing story.

From stars of the past, we're off to meet stars of the future.

I'm travelling across the valleys

to a little village close to the border.

In 1962, a small music festival was set up in Llantilio Crossenny.

Over the years it's developed from a local amateur affair

into a professional event.

I'm here in Monmouthshire.

OK, I'm seriously close to the English border,

but in this school there are children who are rising up the musical scale.

Let's go and meet them.

# Who's playing those bells? #

When Eleanor Francombe became musical director in 2006,

she decided more youngsters should be involved and be even more ambitious.

This year, they're putting on a major opera project. Serious stuff.

Today Cross Ash, tomorrow Welsh National Opera.

Hi, guys.

-Just one sec, Connie.

-Hello, everybody.

-Hello.

-Great singing.

Tell me a bit more about what you're preparing for.

The children are rehearsing four performances

of The Magic Flute by Mozart.

They'll be singing, dancing, making their own costumes and scenery.

# Oh, Papageno, just you wait and see

# Oh, Papageno, just you wait and see. #

You could be singing "spaghetti".

We really need to hear that.

"0h, Papageno, wait and see."

Tell me a bit about the piece.

We're the three ladies and they're sharing the part of Papagena.

It's kind of high.

-It's really high, isn't it?

-Yes.

-# The world stops

-Stops, stops, stops

# Oh, Papageno, wait and see

# You've only one life, just you let it be... #

There's an awful lot of musical talent in Wales,

more so than when I've worked with children in England.

There seems to be a bit more singing quality in Wales.

I think really it's wonderful to have these children available

who really can sing and to be able to put on an opera

where they're not only singing in the chorus,

but they're doing solos as well.

# Oh, I have no key... #

Toby Lane is playing Tamino

explaining to Papageno that he can't help him speak.

# Hmmm, hmmm... #

-# I have no key...

-#

How do you get 10 and 11-year-olds, younger even, singing opera?

You have to find a story they're going to love.

Any fairy-tale is always going to go down well.

And then you've got to show them that opera isn't as stuffy as some people might think.

Some of the stories are such fun.

# This wonderful house

# La, la, la, la, la... #

-The only opera I've ever seen is The Magic Flute.

-Excellent.

-I think you did a better version.

-Thank you.

I couldn't come all this way without giving a masterclass.

# Have you ever had a penguin pat for tea?

# Take a look at me A penguin you could be

Penguins, pay attention. Penguins, begin.

Right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg.

Stick out your bum, stick out your tongue.

# La, la, la la-la, la, la, la, la, la-la.

# La, la, la, la-la, la, la, la, la, la-la. #

SHE SIGHS

0h, it's so good to give something back to the next generation.

I'm exhausted.

And now for something completely different.

I'm off to sample the rock-star lifestyle.

Ohhh.

Uh-oh. Has it got a fourth? Yep.

I'm going east to one of Wales's most legendary venues.

North of Monmouth is Rockfield, a studio that has recorded

the hits of virtually all the great rock bands over the last 45 years.

It's the who's who of rock history.

Queen, Oasis, Ozzy Osbourne, the Rolling Stones. Who hasn't recorded here?

Well, I haven't.

But, moving quickly on to meet co-owner and founder Kingsley Ward

who gave me a tour of a place where there's musical memorabilia everywhere you look.

On top of there is a horse as a weather vane.

My brother thinks that when Freddie Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody

perhaps he got "any way the wind blows" from that horse.

-From that very weather vane?

-He might be right. Freddie isn't here to tell us, is he?

# Any way the wind blows

# Doesn't really matter to me... #

-A little birdie tells me around here Oasis recorded.

-Yes, they did.

When they did What's the story, Morning Glory?

Nigel Kennedy was over there in that studio.

And I could hear Nigel Kennedy doing his classical, every morning.

And I could hear Oasis in this studio.

So I had Oasis on the one side and Nigel Kennedy on the other.

That's a culture shock, isn't it?

When Ozzy turned up in 1966, he used to play bows and arrows here,

against that wall.

No! How old was he?

16.

And this wall here, Noel or Liam sat on top

and sang some words to What's The Story Morning Glory?

We call it "Wonderwall", tongue in cheek.

-How did they get up there?

-They jumped up there.

I'm going to get up there if it kills me.

Oh! OK.

I'm not really going to make it.

# You're my wonderwall... #

Have you got a "get in" list? You can't get in because you're not good enough.

No, we're grateful for anybody now, cos the music business has collapsed.

-If they've got the money, we'll take it off them.

-OK, that's a good ethic.

# Mamma, ooh, ooh, ooh... #

Were you ever there when somebody was inspired to write a song?

When Freddie Mercury sat in the office in the corner I remember him partly writing Bohemian Rhapsody.

I remember him sat over there going through the little things.

We made the greatest records in the world and some of the worst.

Hang on, I haven't been here yet!

We have a lot of tourists from around the world who come for the most strange reasons.

Some come because of a band called Rush.

Some come because of Iggy Pop.

Two people from Texas came a month ago because of Adam and the Ants.

# Stand and deliver... #

You never know who's going to turn up.

It's hallowed ground to many people in the world.

What's kept you going?

With the internet, unfortunately 90% of all music is no longer paid for.

People don't expect to pay any more.

Because we've got a lot of accommodation here,

we've diversified into holiday lets.

So you can stay where Queen have rocked?

You can stay in accommodation where famous rock stars,

Robert Plant and Oasis and all these people, have all been.

-Like Robbie Williams.

-Robbie's been here?

-Yeah.

# So when I'm lying in my bed

# Thoughts running through my head... #

Connie Fisher sleeps in the same bed as Robbie Williams at Rockfield. Don't tell the papers!

# I'm loving angels instead... #

My final destination is the former mining town of Blackwood

to find out about a musical link with all our pasts.

This is the birthplace of the Manic Street Preachers

and this year they returned to play a concert

in the Blackwood Miners' Institute, where they performed over 20 years ago.

The Manics have always valued that link with their past.

Going back to Blackwood after the States seems like a challenge.

There's an element of seeing if you can reconnect to the past.

There's definitely an emotional resonance there.

There's definitely lots of nostalgia.

Tonight, here in Blackwood, The Manic Street Preachers.

CHEERING

And today the link with the past is even stronger

as the Tredegar male-voice choir are rehearsing at the "S'tute".

Built by miners' pennies, Blackwood is now one of the very few surviving miners' institutes in Wales

and still resounds to a sound that's also under threat.

# Mi lynan dawel wrth dy draed

# Mi ganaf am rinweddaur gwaed... #

Historian Gareth Williams has researched the history of the miners' institutes and the choirs.

In these institutes,

and there are about 100 institutes by the First World War, which have various facilities.

They have great libraries, lecture halls, games rooms for chess, dominoes or table tennis.

And they have halls in which they can rehearse and practise,

and all the time they're learning,

they're improving, they're being sociable.

They're enhancing their own citizenship.

So, the men down the mines would sing

and was there a sense of camaraderie there?

Certainly camaraderie and the repertoire of the male choir

is to a great extent about comradeship and struggle and sacrifice.

The male-voice choirs today are still singing Comrades In Arms and Martyrs Of The Arena.

The tradition of male-voice choirs has changed as much as Wales has.

With the loss of mining there's been a dramatic reduction in their number.

I'm going to take my chance while I can.

I'm amongst the boys from Tredegar.

Ooh, oh, there we are.

-I've done this job before.

-I can tell!

-Were you yourself a miner?

-I worked in the colliery for 49 years.

We went underground aged 14 and we just accepted it had to be done.

-Did you all have that sense of camaraderie? Musically as well?

-Always.

You will always find that underground. There's a wonderful bonding.

-In the pits, it was virtually in the baths that we sang.

-Right.

When we were showering.

After I finished working in the mines I missed the companionship.

I joined the choir and found it again there.

We're privileged enough to have a song from you now, so take it away.

# Gogoniant byth am drefn

# Canna fenaid yn y gwaed... #

It is crucial, that link between mining and male-voice choirs.

The miracle is that the male-voice tradition has now survived the decline of the mines.

# Canna fenaid yn y gwaed... #

Let's hope that tradition keeps on going for years to come. Keep on singing, boys.

# Ah-ah-amen

# Ah-ah-amen

# Ah-ah-amen. #

Next week, I'm heading home to Pembrokeshire

as I learn all about the story of this sea shanty.

-Oh, yes.

-Swept away at sea.

In St David's, the gloves are off as I pull out all the stops.

MUSIC: "Baa Baa Black Sheep"

And there's a surprise in store as I enter another talent contest.

# So he may come. #

# Small and white, clean and bright

# You look happy to meet me. #