EDWARDS, PETER (Pedr Alaw; 1854 - 1934), musician

Name: Peter Edwards
Pseudonym: Pedr Alaw
Date of birth: 1854
Date of death: 1934
Parent: Elizabeth Edwards
Parent: John Edwards
Gender: Male
Occupation: musician
Area of activity: Music; Performing Arts
Author: Robert David Griffith

Born at Castle Cottage, Rhuddlan, Flintshire, son of John and Elizabeth Edwards. Educated at the Rhuddlan national school, he showed when quite young a fondness for music and learnt the tonic sol-fa system when he was a member of the choir of his chapel. After leaving school he worked in the office of a timber merchant at Rhyl, proceeding thence to similar work in Liverpool; there, at Bootle, he conducted a children's choir. An anthem which he composed for a Liverpool eisteddfod was awarded the prize by Owain Alaw (John Owen, 1821 - 1883). After five years in Liverpool he worked at Barrow-in-Furness, removing in 1877 to London as a shorthand writer to a firm of timber merchants. He attended music classes at Birkbeck College and at Trinity College of Music under Turpin and Karn. He conducted choirs and children's musical festivals, and wrote notes on music to the London Kelt. He composed cantatas: ' Gareth ac Eiluned,' ' Cantawd y Blodau '; published Anthemydd y Cysegr; and wrote several hymn-tunes and chants (see his Llyfr o 300 o Salm-donau). In 1912 he emigrated to the U.S.A.; he subsequently graduated Mus. Bac. (Toronto). Entering the Anglican ministry, he was appointed assistant priest at the cathedral church of Lisbon, North Dakota. In 1932 he became assistant priest in the church of S. Luke, Chicago. He died 23 July 1934 and was buried in Graceland cemetery, Chicago.

Author

Robert David Griffith, (1877 - 1958)

Sources

Cerddor y Cymry, September 1891
Y Cerddor, October 1921
Y Drych, 1934

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/

Corrections

EDWARDS, PETER (PERCY); ('Pedr Alaw ', 1854 - 1934).

His degree Mus.Bac. (Toronto) was received before 1906. After emigrating and taking holy orders he entered the ministry and served the churches of Westminster and Ideal, South Dakota, Monango and Lisbon, North Dakota, Malta and Roundup, Montana, and was assistant priest at the cathedral, Helena, Montana. He composed church music and conducted choral groups. Three of his sons were known in Wisconsin as 'the Welsh boy singers'. Among his friends were Daniel Protheroe and Bransby Williams. Some of his work is in the British Library and the National Library of Wales. His Beatitudes (1906), a sacred cantata, was dedicated to his friend, John Owen, Bishop of St. David's. By this time he had adopted the name Percy Edwards.

Author

Evan David Jones, (1903 - 1987)

Sources

Information from his son, Merlin D. Edwards, Minneapolis, and Huw Williams

Published date: 1997

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/