| Cwmwl Tystion by theatr powys |
| First presented in 2009 by Theatr Powys |
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cast size:1
synopsis: Cwmwl Tystion is a programme about words. A story in which the children join a pilgrimage in search of words, words that one little heart needs so much. Participatory Theatre in Education programme for Years 4,5 & 6 |
There are 2 reviews of Theatr Powys's Cwmwl Tystion in our database:
| Stunning New Music Composition | |
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Cwmwl Tystion
by theatr powys
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[print] |
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venue Aberystwyth Arts Centre |
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June 13, 2019 |
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| Tomos Williams and his group of five musicians receive a rousing reception for the premiere of his suite in Aberystwyth's Great Hall. For him and for harpist Rhodri Davies Aberystwyth is a homecoming. It is also a reunion, the two having last played at a family event twenty years previously. The title of Williams' new eighty-minute suite is taken from a poem by Waldo Williams. Simon Profitt is also on stage and his visuals are rhythmic complement to the the music. The geographic images range from mountain to water to split-screen mirror images of Aberystwyth. The themes are past indignity: the Blue Books, Tryweryn. The language itself is insulted; “a barrier to moral progress” is the least of it. Gnomic sentences jump on the screen. “Pa beth yw cenedl?” The face of Paul Robeson, in address to the 1957 Miners Eisteddfod, is pictured in fractured, pixellated form. Formally, the suite comprises five parts announced on the screen. It is described as “jazz, the avant-garde, improvisation and Welsh folk music.” If it has a lineage it looks to Wahada Leo Smith, through Anthony Braxton, and to “In a Silent Way”. Except that the line-up is different; Davies on harp but no guitar, no saxophone but Francesca Simmons on violin and saw. Her contribution is most marked in the second part, evoking the lyric spirit of the folk music tradition. But like all art that makes its mark it is both connected, outside itself, while being inimitably itself Music like painting is held together by tension. The key one in the Tystion Suite is that between trumpet and ensemble. Tomos Williams' music for his own trumpet is not in the jazz style; no short jabbing phrases but long anthemic cadences. Towards the close his cornet has a superlative richness of tone. In apposition is the drumming of Mark O'Connor, a long-term collaborator. Huw V Williams' bass is given several solos. The second half has more solo playing from Huw Warren's piano, jagged note-streams, with a deep satisfaction to them. The suite is inspired thematically by troubled times past and present. At its climactic moments the listener's ear is tested close to its limit to discern order within discord. There is a passage around three-quarters in of bleeps and squawks that is the avant-garde a margin too far for me. But overall the music is a stirring blast of modernity. And all the more welcome for that. The flavour of the music can be heard at: https://youtu.be/yJUYoHD6AQI “The Cwmwl Tystion Suite” has been commissioned by Tŷ Cerdd and the tour supported by Arts Council of Wales. Aberystwyth Arts Centre has provided further help and the provision of the Great Hall for two days' rehearsal. The group plays London later in the month. Audiences in Wales can hear it at Mold (13th), Chapter (25th), Taliesin (28th) and Pontio (29th). |
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| reviewer: Adam Somerset |
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| "Cwmwl Tystion II/Riot!": Spirit-stirring Jazz Suite from Ceredigion Musician-Composer | |
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Cwmwl Tystion
by theatr powys
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[print] |
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venue Aberystwyth Arts Centre |
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December 9, 2021 |
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| "Who controls the past controls the future": thus one of Orwell's most ringing apothegms. History is a battlefield, never more so than in 2021. The word "colony" is used widely, and too slackly, in public discourse in Wales. It has now been appropriated by opponents of the status quo, Gwynedd referred to as an internal colony of a hegemonic south. Unionism and nationalism lay claim to different frames of history. Glyndwr, central to nationalist history, has small role in the myth-formation of Labour Wales. Riot is core to the national story, A writer has recorded a list, that begins with troops brought in to face armed miners in Rhuddlan in 1740. 51 incidents follow and it ends in Ely in 1991. The record is revealing but is also, as ever, revealing in what is concealed. Its purpose is to show citizenship in collective action against the state. Citizenship in action against itself slips from this agenda. The author, to be read at neam.co.uk/cymru/uprisings, omits Tredegar, anti-semitic rioting and the Cardiff riots of 1919. Riot of citizens against their fellows has taken place not far away from where we sit in Theatr y Werin. A plaque in three languages can be read on a wall at the base of Bronglais Hill. The last line in the English version reads "This plaque is placed by Aberystwyth Town Council in the hope that nobody will experience such persecution in our town again." The return of Aberystwyth's Tomos Williams to his home venue is a corrective to this single-stranded theme that riot is Welsh virtue in opposition to state unvirtue. His hour-long suite is a revisionist history to fit 2021. Soweto Kinch lowers his saxes to rap. His episode is Cardiff 1919. He elicits some sharply fresh rhymes. "Newport" fits with "to court." In the discussion that accompanies the suite Kinch matches a warmth of persona to a depth of engagement. He has been in Cardiff, learned from Butetown's historians, been in Frederick Street, interpreted the demolitions and re-makings of the historic lay-out. His words earn their own round of applause. Mahmood Mattan has been recalled this season in Nadifa Mohamed’s superb novel "the Fortune Men", given prominence from its short-listing for the Man Booker award. Mahmood Matttan is subject for a haunting, keening tribute from Eady Crawford. She is vocalist and also musician, her fingers working an electronic keyboard. The voice is a wonder with a piercing clarity. Tomos Williams speaks of his apprenticeship, the Brecon Jazz Festival to collaboration with Fernhill and Julie Murphy. "I remember vividly the impression made on me", he says in an interview for "Buzz", "when I was a teenager in Aber back in the 90s, when I had the chance to see Lee Konitz, Harry Becket, Loose Tubes and others live in Aberystwyth Arts Centre”. Eventually, he says, the categories slide away; the rich timbre of Eädyth's voice contains multitudes. Words, or some of them, are reference points to material reality. Whether music, the art of sonic immateriality, can reach any level of representation, is a long puzzled-over aesthetic issue. "Ma Vlast", a milestone in nineteenth century national emancipation, is described as being that, a transcription in sound of Prague and the Moldau. The same issue is here; the extent to which Tonypandy in 1911 can be represented in Tomos Williams' composition is questionable. “The performance will be followed by a Q and A session with members of the band to discuss some of the issues which I hope will have been raised by the music”. I am not so sure. Issues come forth in the concreteness of language not the intangibility of aural expression. But then audiences do not assemble for aesthetic ponderings but for sensation. "Cwmwl Tystion II/Riot!" comes with a physical force that is liveness of music. The line-up is completed with vibraphone Orphy Robinson, bass Aidan Thorne and drums Mark O'Connor. The music has a visual accompaniment; it varies little, is agitated and jumpy. It does not detract from the music but does not augment it. The performance would probably be more concentrated with its absence. Performance is the result of many hands, some seen, many unseen. Williams in the "Buzz" interview: “I am very grateful to Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Dafydd Rhys and Louise Amery in particular, for consistently supporting my Cwmwl Tystion vision, as they did in 2019, and we'll be rehearsing at Theatr y Werin for two days before our first performance.” It shows; the audience response is deep. "Cwmwl Tystion II/Riot!" continues to the Dora Stoutzker Hall, Theatr Soar, Pontio, Lost ARC, Rhayader & Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea The list of riots and uprisings may be read at https://www.neam.co.uk/cymru/uprisings.html |
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| reviewer: Adam Somerset |
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| If you know of any other existing review, or if you have any more information on Cwmwl Tystion, (perhaps you were in the production or were the author or director) then please use the form below to send us the details |