Music manuscripts

Here are examples of the music manuscripts that we hold:

• an early manuscript that records a St David’s Day Service in Penpont Antiphonal
• the Maria Jane Williams papers - the pioneer in recording folk songs
• the collection of John Lloyd Williams papers containing numerous folk songs. It also includes the manuscript of John Thomas the fiddler, which is a rare source of 18th century folk music
• the papers and compositions of John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia) who was harpist to Queen Victoria. He was mainly responsible for turning the people of Wales’ attention from the triple harp to the pedal harp and made it into a national icon
• a collection of manuscripts by famous musicians e.g. the autobiography of Joseph Parry. There are also manuscripts belonging to musicians such as Daniel Jones, William Mathias, Grace Williams and David Lloyd, the singer
• papers from national institutions such as the Welsh National Opera
•  the manuscript of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau. Listen to the earliest recording (11 March 1899)