Tra Bo Dau

The Welsh folksong Tra Bo Dau arranged by Meirion Wynn Jones for SATB choir. Piano accompaniment is included for rehearsal purposes only. The collecting of Tra Bo Dau in 1906 by the Bangor academic J. Lloyd Williams (1854-1945) from the singing of his wife and sister-in-law proved to be an act of great consequence for the future of folk music in Wales - leading as it did, to the founding of the Welsh Folk Song Society. The song, promoted by Williams at the National Eisteddfod in Caernarfon that year, grew quickly in popularity, despite the commentator Frank Kidson claiming the melody to be "a corruption of 'The Cobler of Castlebury'" by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814). More recentanalysis points to a similarity in the song's opening phrase only. - Meirion Wynn Jones