SPAN Arts’ choir Côr Pawb invite you to Y Canu Mawr! / The Big Sing!
29th May 2023 | 11.15 – 12.00 | St Davids Cathedral
Span Arts Choir Côr Pawb performed a short programme of pilgrimage related songs at St Davids Cathedral as part of a Pilgrim Fayre.
Live stream from St. Davids – 29th May. Watch above or in a separate window.
The event was a celebration of the Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim project including a performance of a new song An Dara Craiceann (Tr. The Second Skin) written by Rachel Uí Fhaoláin in response to the project and concluded with a massed a Capella singing of the hymn ‘Pererin Wyf’ by William Williams, Pantycelyn where all assembled were invited to join in!
The project Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim culminated this Spring with an online film screening followed by a short live streamed concert at St Davids Cathedral. The project which has sought to connect with the Welsh and Irish diaspora through identity, language, travel and song was inspired by an 18th century Welsh hymn and has resulted in a new macaronic song.
The hymn has been sung to the tune of Amazing Grace since Welsh singer Iris Williams made her landmark recording in 1971.
For this event the hymn has been arranged by Côr Pawb choir leader Molara Awen.
If you would like to join with Côr Pawb in singing in four part harmony you can learn your part by clicking the links below!
Print your own song sheet here!
The concert will be live-streamed by the Cathedral.
An Dara Craiceann (Tr. The Second Skin) is a new macaronic song written in the traditional style by singer Rachel Uí Fhaoláin. A macaronic song is one that contains more than one language. Rachel writes of the song:
“The song reflects the understandings of pilgrimage and what it can unlock from beneath the surface, as we journey through life…The air I used is from another beautiful song that we enjoy singing together as a family; a Wexford song of emigration called ‘Bannow Mother’s Lament’. I also interweaved a section of the old Welsh hymn Pererin Wyf into the new song. All the individual pieces seemed to stitch together seamlessly.”
Pererin Wyf Film Screening Event
May 24th 2023
7.30pm, Online
You can get a sneak preview of the new work by joining on the 24th May for an online sharing including a new film documenting the Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim project created in collaboration withradio producer Paul Evans and film makers Jacob Whittaker and John Ó Faoláin. The film features the voices of those who have taken part and reflects contemporary understandings of pilgrimage, home and return.
The evening will also include a screening of a film of the new song and a special performance by the London Irish Community Choir direct from the London Irish Centre.
The event is free but please book through the Span Arts Website.
BOOK NOW
Watch Côr Pawb performing the hymn as part of Narberth A Capella Voice Festival
About the project
Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim is a participatory arts project that has sought to connect with the Welsh and Irish diaspora with particular reference to Pembrokeshire and Wexford and a new cross-border pilgrimage connecting these places. The project took its title from an 18th century hymn.
The song widely known in Wales and beyond through the Welsh diaspora will be familiar to a great many other people around the globe as it is mostly sung to the tune of Amazing Grace.
This project invited people wherever they were in the world to sing this song, a version of this song or any song that has the power to call you back home and to pin that recording to our online map.
Check out the project song map here
The project began in September 2022 with a series of free online workshops with world class speakers focusing on key themes of the project; connecting with the Welsh and Irish diaspora, language, home, travel and song.
Workshops continued in the Spring of 2023 with song and story sharing in Pembrokeshire and Wexford and an exchange trip resulting in the writing of a new macaronic song in English, Welsh and Irish by project co-facilitator Rachel Uí Fhaoláin.
The project has been developed by artist Rowan O’Neill and co-facilitated in Wexford by Irish artists Rachel Uí Fhaoláin from Ceol Mo Chroí and John Ó Faoláin from the Traditional Archive Channel and in West Wales by sound artist and film maker Jacob Whittaker. Pererin Wyf hymn arrangement Molara Awen and Coding by Alan Cameron Wills.
Pererin Wyf is part of the Ancient Connections project funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme.
