Ieuan Ddu (John Thomas, 1795-1871) was a schoolmaster with a particular interest in music, singing and eisteddfodau and was a pioneer at Merthyr Tydfil regarding choral singing. In 1845 he published Y Caniedydd Cymreig (The Cambrian Minstrel), which contained 104 Welsh airs, the first inexpensive song book for use in choral singing, a copy of which is in the Library.
In an 1861 article for the Merthyr Telegraph entitled ‘Recollections and Records No. XVIII’ an unnamed writer provides a biography of Ieuan, claimed he was ‘emphatically’ the first who used female singers at eisteddfodau, which is debatable, but he was very successful in this respect and did have notable achievements particularly with Morfydd Glantaf, Ddriw Vach, and Eos Vach.
The latter was of interest to me when researching my book Women in Welsh Coal Mining: Tip Girls at Work in a Men's World (Pen and Sword, 2023) because according to the same Merthyr Telegraph article, she was a tip girl. In the book I traced Eos Vach (Little Nightingale) and found she was probably born Ann Cornow of Merthyr Tydfil on 2 June 1822 and she began singing when she was around 14.
The Merthyr Telegraph article detailed how Eos Vach had been taken by her parents to sing for Ieuan when he, ‘charmed by her voice’ determined to provide musical training to the ‘little mine tip girl’ and taught her some Welsh airs ‘as English was out of the question.’ However, training girls ‘so young, and so destitute of educations in everything’ was a struggle as they:
"could not be taught properly, and it was all up-hill work ere they were fairly proficient. The fact is, at that time, females looked at a lesson in Sol Fa as they would at an algebraic series of its signs and quantities, and even when girls were willing to be taught parents blindly withheld their permission unless the sound of praise was heard and the jingling of prizes, girls fell back into their old habits in style, and forgot their master’s teachings, and parents voted the whole useless and expensive."
The parents’ attitudes are understandable. Competitive singing could generate a useful income for impoverished families as winning choirs would split the purse or individuals would keep their prizes. Losing, however, often meant a loss of wages when attending competitions and travelling expenses so many competitors only appeared at local competitions – most of Eos Vach’s appearances are limited to Abergavenny and Cardiff.
Almost as soon as Eos Vach appeared, she became very popular and her first traceable appearance was in December 1836 at the Abergavenny Cymreigyddion (Welsh speakers) Society where the President, Sir Benjamin Hall (1802–1867), 1st Baron Lord Llanover (it is suggested the London clock tower Big Ben was named after him) was concerned that no prizes had been organised for the women, ‘when he found that no one else had proposed any thing (sic) for the fair minstrels of his country, from whose lips they had heard such delightfully sweet strains of melody,’ he personally donated two medals one worth three guineas for the best female singer, and one worth two guineas for second place (a guinea was worth 21 shillings at a time when girls of Eos Vach’s age were earning around 6–12s a week at the mines). It was at this first appearance, that Hall gave her the bardic name, Eos Vach (Little Nightingale) because of her similarity to the famous soprano the Swedish Nightingale (Jenny Lind (1820–1887)).
Later, Eos Vach and others gave a concert at the home of Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (1812–1895) also known as Lady Llanover, well known as the first translator in modern print of The Mabinogion (the earliest prose literature of Britain). In her diary Lady Llanover wrote, ‘October 27 [1837] – in the evening we had a little concert. Little Eos Vach (a little girl from Merthyr) came to sing, and brought Davis, a Harper, to accompany her.’ She goes on to note that Ioan Tegid (1792–1852), was so pleased with Eos Vach’s singing that he composed an englyn (short poem) in her honour on the spot.
In October 1838 Eos Vach career was suddenly halted when she and colleagues had been travelling from Merthyr on the Mountaineer coach when a sudden swerve near the bottom of the steep Llanelly Pitch, ‘dashed’ them to the ground with ‘such violence that Eos Fach was rendered for some time after quite insensible, and still lies seriously ill at Abergavenny’.
She recovered, and a year later it appears she married because as of this date she is often referred to as Mrs Ann Rees. Her fame grew, and by 1849 she was headlining as a lead attraction with words like ‘celebrated’ and ‘famous’ attached to her name but from the 1850s onwards the bardic name of Eos Vach/Fach was ascribed to several women but none seem to be of Ann Cornow/Rees.
With limited information available about the individual lives of Welsh tip women and girls, it is pleasant to be able to get a small glimpse into the life of Eos Vach with her simple Welsh melodies flowing from her ‘rude throat.’
Norena Shopland
Category: Article