In the spring of 2020, Swansea Museum in collaboration with the Calon Lân Centre in Swansea, will be hosting a museum exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the death of local and Welsh poet, Daniel James (Gwyrosydd), author of the famous Welsh anthem, “Calon Lân”.
What a great season we’ve just had at Calon Lân Centre! June and July saw some fantastic events, some amazing collaborations and great relationships built. Here’s just a small summary of things that happened before our August break…
‘Calon Lân’ is a hymn which is close to the heart of any Welsh person, and is regarded even today as one of the great anthems of Wales. While it has been translated into English, it is still only ever sung in the original Welsh. Having been written in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, it came to prominence during the Welsh Revival of 1904-5 when it was one of the most frequently sung expressions of spiritual longing and desire for personal holiness by those who were caught up in that great move of the Holy Spirit. The song has remained a great favourite ever since, still often being sung at concerts and eisteddfodau, and even before international rugby matches at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. It has even developed the status of one of the great icons of Wales; and even t-shirts, mugs, badges, caps, cards and posters can be seen in many ‘Welsh’ shops with the words of the song on them. Its iconic status reflects the deeply-rooted and rich Christian heritage that is still a strong part of Welsh culture even today.
“What had drawn me to meet this young choir was something I saw online. As well as being beautifully dressed in traditional clothes and singing hymns in Mizo they also sang ‘Calon Lân’ in Mizo but also in perfect Welsh. I’m currently working on a couple of projects still under wraps to celebrate Swansea at 50 and as soon as I saw that performance, I knew I need to meet them and to record and film them too.” (Mal Pope)
In April 2019 the Morriston Orpheus Choir held a number of its rehearsals at Mynyddbach Chapel in Swansea. The Chapel hosts the Calon Lân Centre in recognition of Daniel James, who wrote the words of Calon Lân, and who is buried in the Chapel graveyard.The Choir took the opportunity to film this short tribute (with thanks to Colin Rees and David Hammond-Williams for producing the video)
Dunvant Male Choir sing Calon Lan with Bryn Terfel at Mynyddbach Chapel The fantastic Dunvant Male Choir singing Calon Lan with Bryn Terfel at Mynyddbach Chapel – look at the beautiful chapel – home of the Calon Lan Centre. Keep in touch with us, we love to hear from you. With love, The Calon Lan …
Dunvant Male Choir sing Calon Lan with Bryn Terfel at Mynyddbach Chapel Read More »
Greetings to all our Calon Lan Centre friends. We just wanted to give you a small Calon Lan Centre update on our recent developments. The Calon Lan Centre is now almost fully restored to being a first class venue. As a result, the chapel is now available for the booking of concerts, and recitals, worship …
From September 2015 , we will be celebrating 375 years of nonconformity at Mynyddbach. Mynyddbach is the Mother chapel to over 60 sister chapels in the Swansea and surrounding areas. To celebrate this we have been busy renovating the chapel and grounds and on Friday 9th October at 7pm we will be holding a concert …
Mynyddbach Chapel and the Calon Lân Centre 1640 – 2015 Read More »
We have a new Flickr site and Twitter account which are both linked to our website. Please take a look! The photographs are courtesy of Ivor Williams who has taken some fantastic shots over the last few years of the ongoing work being done at Mynyddbach. You can see how the building is being transformed. …
We would like to send our congratulations to Wales on their win last night -amazing! Wales rubgy fans have a repertoire of songs sung regularly at rugby events and you can bet that Calon Lân was being sung not just in Wales but in Twickenham yesterday. What would Daniel James have made of that we wonder. …
