Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod - History

History

The following history is based on the account on International Eisteddfod official web-site written by Professor Chris Adams, April 2006.

The origins of the International Eisteddfod go back to 1943 when Harold Tudor, an officer of the British Council, arranged a visit for members of governments-in-exile to the Welsh National Eisteddfod in Bangor. The excursion was well received especially by the noted writer and poet Juraj Slavik, the Minister for the Interior in the Czechoslovakia Government in Exile. Following the visit he wrote to Tudor praising the value of music as a way of healing the effects of War. The following year an international concert was held as part of the Llandybie National Eisteddfod.

Towards the end of 1945 Tudor proposed that an international choral festival be added to the 1947 Welsh National Eisteddfod, however the Council of the National Eisteddfod felt that as all their effort were involved in rebuilding their own organisation they could not take on such a scheme. Tudor modified his proposal into an independent music festival and found support for this idea from W. S. Gwynn Williams, Welsh composer and music publisher and George Northing, a teacher from Dinas Brân County School and chairman of Llangollen town council. Gwynn Williams and Northing both pressed for the Eisteddfod to be in their home town of Llangollen.

The public gave support to this idea at two public meetings in May 1946 but concerns were also raised about who would come, where the event would be held and how the event would be financed. The British Council offered to help find choirs from Europe and to give financial support however the town decided to raise the money through a public subscription and quickly gathered over £1100. George Northing was made director of the executive board; Gwynn Williams became music director; Harold Tudor was Director of Publicity and W. Clayton Russon, a local businessman and High Sheriff of Merionethshire became President.

Plans to hold the event on the school field of Dinas Bran County School progressed throughout 1946-47. Accommodation for the overseas competitors would be in houses in the town and surrounding area and domestic participants would be given beds in church and school halls. As rationing was still in place ration coupons had to be found for all the visitors and the Minister of Food was eventually persuaded to supply these.

When in June 1947 it was time for competitors to travel to Llangollen a railway strike had started in France and there were serious doubt as to whether any overseas competitors would be able to arrive. Considerable relief was felt by the organisers when the first coach of competitors arrived bringing the ladies’ choir Grupo Musical Feminino from Oporto, Portugal. They were the eventual winners of the Ladies Competition whilst the Men's competition was won by the Hungarian workers’ choir, who had completed their journey to Wales by hitch-hiking when their train had been cancelled at Basle because of the French strike.

The Esperanto Society played a significant part in the first year when it was felt that there could be a shortage of participants. Reto Rossetti, a well-known figure and author in the Esperanto movement, was asked to help and through publicity in Esperanto magazines and to the surprised of the organisers, several groups contacted the Eisteddfod committee. One troup of Spanish dancers, on a tour of Britain sponsored by the Esperanto Society, arrived and despite there not being a dance competition in the first year performed to delighted audiences. This made such an impression that folk dance competitions have featured in every subsequent Llangollen Eisteddfod.

The eisteddfod was brought to close by what has now become the traditional Sunday concert featuring Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra. The 1947 International Eisteddfod was hailed as an unqualified success with praise for the organisers, the founders, and all the competitors. There was even a surplus of £1432 to be used for the next year's event.

One of the festival's first tests of its peace promoting mission occurred in 1949, just four years after the end of the war, when a choir from Lübeck, Germany, came to compete at the Eisteddfod. The festival's compère Mr Hywel Roberts, whose brother had been killed in the war, introduced the choir with the words: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our friends from West Germany." The choir was warmly welcomed with a burst of applause from the audience.