Cwm Rhondda Hymn
Created | Updated May 13, 2006
Cwm Rhondda, 87.87.47, is a Welsh hymn composed by John Hughes (1873-1932) at Llantwit Vardre, Wales. You might wonder why a devout heathen such as Fu-Manchu would be interested in a hymn. He sang it as a boy in school assemblies where, much to the amusement of the assembled male youth, a master by the name of Mr. Rowsberry would sing the tenor counterpoint. Such is the wonder of youth that can find deep amusement in small things! In this arrangment and transposition for pennywhistle, the tenor counterpoint is retained in the first measure of the fourth staff.
Luckily, Fu-Manchu’s maternal grandmother was a chapel-going Anabaptist who had a copy of the sheet music obtained from Mrs. John Hughes, Tregarth, Tonteg, Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales, priced twopence ha’penny, postage extra. Here the words of the hymn differ from the those in the edited Guide entry, and are likely truer since they are derived from material that is closer to the source.
Wikipedia has an entry for Cwm Rhondda that contains Welsh-English translations of the words.
Other tunes in this series can be found listed on the Toots of the Whistle page of the Guide.
This abc-rendition is transposed for the pennywhistle, tuned to the key of D. Copy and paste the abc-code, shown below, into your own text file and then process the file using the abc-tool of your choice. Free abc utilities are available that will convert the code to a MIDI file, to Adobe PostScript, and to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) suitable for printing the sheet music. As an alternative, it is possible to read the abc-code direct and play it on your favourite instrument.
X:11719857
T:Cwm Rhondda
T:Hymn
T:--h2g2 article A11719857--
L:1/4
S:Cwm Rhondda, Hymn
C:John Hughes 1873-1932
N:pennywhistle, tinwhistle, tin, penny, whistle
N:flageolet, fipple, flute, feadog
Z:Transposed 20060511 by H2G2 U107221 for the pennywhistle keyed in D.
F:Cwm-Rhondda-H2G2-A
M:4/2
Q:1/2=100
K:D
"^Pennywhistle in D"
A2 B2 A3 d | (d c) (d e) f2 e2 | f2 d2 B2 g2 | f2 e2 d4 ||
w:Guide me, O Thou Gr-e-at Je-ho-va! Pil-grim through this bar-ren land;
A2 B2 A3 d | (d c) (d e) f2 e2 | f2 g2 a2 g e | d2 c2 d4 ||
w:I am weak, but Th-ou a-rt Migh-ty, Hold me with th-y power-ful hand:
e3 f g2 e2 | f3 g a2 f2 | a3 a a a a a |
w:Bread of hea-ven! Bread of hea-ven! Feed me now and ev-er
a2 A c e4 | a3 g f a g e | d2 c2 d4 |]
w:more. Ev-er more. Feed me no-w a-nd ev-er more
W:
W:Open Thou the crystal fountain,
W:\ \ \ \ \ Whence the healing streams doth flow;
W:Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
W:\ \ \ \ \ Lead me all my journey through.
W:\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \Strong Deliverer!
W:\ \ \ \ \ Be Thou still my strength and shield.
W:
W:When I tread the verge of Jordan
W:\ \ \ \ \ Bid my anxious fears subside;
W:Bear me through the swelling torrent
W:\ \ \ \ \ Land me safe on Canaan's side:
W:\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Songs of praises
W:\ \ \ \ \ I will ever give to thee.
