CENNIN AUR

To be confirmed

Two high voice solos, SATB choir (divisi)

During my time singing with the Pendyrus Male Voice Choir, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in some of Wales’ best-loved tunes. One piece, in particular, has remained close to my heart—and to many Welsh singers who perform it: Mansel Thomas’ Cennin Aur. This work embodies an immediate sense of hiraeth, woven through its harmonic suspensions, close harmonies, and the poignant sentiment that beauty is fleeting.

Cennin Aur was Mansel Thomas’ first notable composition, written in the mid-1920s for the newly formed Pendyrus Choir, which rehearsed near his home in Tylorstown. Perhaps still one of Thomas’ most-performed works, it evokes a deeply Welsh nostalgia—for a time lost, or even for the loss of time itself. These are the elements I sought to capture in my response to Mansel Thomas, nestled within the words of Psalm 144 (Psalm 143 in the Latin Vulgate): “Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.”

This work was composed for David Leggett and Cantorion Ardwyn, in celebration of the choir’s 60th anniversary.

Domine,
quid est homo,
quia innotuisti ei?
aut filius hominis, quia reputaseum?

Psalm 143, Vulgate

Fe wylwn ni,
O Gennin aur,
O’ch mynd yn ebrwydd iawn,
A haul y bore ar ei hynt
Heb gyrraedd ei brynhawn;
Hwy, hwy, a’r dydd yn treiglo mwy,
Arhowch, Arhowch amdanom ni;
Ac wedi’n gosber weddi,
fe Ddown ninnau gyda chi.

Homo vanitati similis factus est;
dies ejus sicut umbra praetereunt.

Byr fydd yr hynt
I ni a chwi,
A’n gwanwyn unwedd yw;
Mor rhwydd y down i ben y daith
A chwi, eu unpeth byw;
Awn oll, Awn oll, A’ch oriau chwi,
ar goll, Fel rhith;
Mwy nag am fanlaw Mai,
Neu ber-lau awr y bore wlith,
Sôn am ein didd ni sai’.

T. Gwynn Jones (1871 - 1949)

3’