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Unawd Duitara wedi'i recordio'n fyw yn y cenhaty ym Mawkhar, Shillong, Tachwedd 2018

A Duitara solo recorded live at the mission house in Mawkhar, Shillong, November 2018


The tune that tells the story of the Welsh mission all by itself, this melody had a huge influence on the way I thought about the project. Originally a folk song called ‘Wel, bachgen Ifanc Ydwyf (Well, I am a young lad), it travelled to Meghalaya as a hymn tune with the early missionaries. It isn’t certain how the tune came to be named after the Khasi Hills (‘Bryniau Cassia’ means ‘Khasi Hills’ in Welsh), although my money is on the missionary Hugh Roberts, who is credited with writing the Khasi words for it in the Khasi hymn book, Ka Kot Jingrwai. In his excellent book Gwalia in Khasia, the Welsh poet and academic Nigel Jenkins pointed out that the Welsh missionaries did to the Khasi people what they had already done to themselves a few generations earlier. The rise of Methodism in Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries transformed a lively secular folk culture with a strong oral tradition into a dour, literate and religious one. Out went the harps, taverns and bawdy ballads and in came the chapel and the hymn. Secular music and dancing were discouraged, and many folk songs from the oral tradition were lost or reborn as religious music as ‘Wel, bachgen ifanc ydwyf’ was. So, contained within this tune is a transection of a period of Welsh and Khasi history; a tune from the Welsh oral tradition, reborn during the Methodist revival then exported to India in the evangelical and colonial fervour of the late Victorian period. Named after the site of the first Welsh mission, it made its way into the Khasi hymn book Ka Kot Jingrwai, where it can still be found, nestling amongst a great number of other Welsh tunes. When I began sharing this tune in Meghalaya it was only familiar to some of the older artists that had been raised in the Presbyterian church. It seems that the tune is too old fashioned and dour for modern tastes, perhaps now destined to slip into obscurity. I recorded this version on Duitara in a house that was being used by an artists’ collective in the old mission compound in Mawkhar, Shillong. I added a field recording to the track as well, to add a sense of place and confusion to this now uprooted tune. The rainstorm and birdsong were recorded at Umshing in the spring of 2018, but would they sound so out of place on a stormy spring day in Wales?

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from ‘Sai​-​thaiñ ki Sur, released May 28, 2020
Gareth Bonello – Duitara
Recorded by Gareth Bonello at Streamlet Cottage, Mawkhar, Shillong, November 2018
Soundcapes recorded by Gareth Bonello At Umshing, Meghalaya, April 2018

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The Gentle Good Cardiff, UK

Cantor o Gaerdydd sy'n canu yn y Gymraeg a'r Saesneg. Chware'r gitar acwstig yn bennaf.

Songwriter from Cardiff, singing in Welsh and English. Primarily plays acoustic guitar.

Cantautor de Cardiff que canta en galés y inglés. Principalmente toca la guitarra acústica. ... more

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