Talk:Ar Hyd y Nos

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Songs

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English translation[edit]

The supposedly literal English translation looks like it was probably made using Google Translate. I mean, my grasp of Welsh is pretty shaky but even I could do better than that. It doesn't even read coherently as a piece of English. So I'll try to improve it. Perhaps some passing Welsh speaker could improve it further? Dodo64 (talk) 22:41, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Authorship[edit]

A book that I own seems to contradict the information in this article regarding the song's authorship. A version of this song (in English) appears in the "Folksinger's Wordbook," compiled and edited by Irwin and Fred Silber and published by Oak Publications in 1973. In this book, the song is attributed to someone called Sir Harold Boulton, although the book does not state whether he is supposed to have written the lyrics, the music or both. John1701 19:24, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, interesting. A quick google throws up this web page and this discussion, which seem to suggest that the original Welsh lyrics are by Ceirog Hughes, but the English-language lullaby beginning, "Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee" are by Boulton, set to the same music but not a literal translation of Ceirog Hughes's lyrics. DWaterson 20:19, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Do those web pages count as reputable sources, do you think? Asking because if they are I'd like to use them to cite the lyrics. Cathfolant (talk) 21:38, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've stuck in the web pages as sources. Please get rid of them if you don't like it. Cathfolant (talk) 21:51, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Date[edit]

"Ar Hyd y Nos" ("All Through the Night") is a Welsh folksong sung to a tune which was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784).

This isn't right. "First transcribed" might be better. 76.22.158.104 (talk) 14:58, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Recorded doesn't necessarily mean audio recording. GDallimore (Talk) 22:03, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Use in "The Beggar's Opera"[edit]

The article mentions that John Gay used the melody in The Beggar's Opera, and laudably provides a source (thus ^[1]) - I have not been able to consult a copy of this book to see if it suggests exactly where it appears in Gay's work.

Does anyone know? It would make a useful addition to the article.

Jmrichardson (talk) 16:45, 7 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

^ Hywel, John (1987). Famous Songs of Wales/Caneuon Enwog Cymru. Penygroes, Caernarfon: Gwynn. ISBN 0-900426-60-8.

Neither the tune nor the text "Go, my children with my blessing" appear anywhere in any of the copies of The Beggar's Opera that I have seen.

Here's an online version of the opera: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25063/25063-h/25063-h.htm.

If the tune first appeared in 1784, then it is highly unlikely that it was part of a 1728 opera.

I strongly advise removing this claim until someone can provide an edition of the opera that includes this song.

184.3.102.156 (talk) 19:18, 31 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect this claim may be a confusion with Llwyn Onn (The Ash Grove), which is similar to 'Cease your Fanning' in The Beggar's Opera. The confusion may have been introduced by a letter in which the John Parry (Bardd Alaw) noted the connection between Llwyn Onn and The Beggar's Opera and also discussed Ar Hyd y Nos.[1] Verbcatcher (talk) 22:37, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Citation tags[edit]

I can see why everything else has to be cited, and I will try to dig up sources of one sort or another, but how is one supposed to cite the literal English translation? If it didn't exist before the Wiki article, what do you cite, this or something? Cathfolant (talk) 22:58, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the translation predated the article. Whoops on my part. Cathfolant (talk) 21:31, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Robeson[edit]

Paul Robeson sang this in the 1940 film, The Proud Valley, and also did a standalone version. The Proud Valley is, I believe, a Criterion Collection film, and you have not heard this song until you have heard Robeson sing it. It absolutely deserves mention. It's also on Youtube, both the above mentioned film and the song. 108.21.9.173 (talk) 01:51, 12 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Use in Penny Dreadful tv series[edit]

"All Through the Night" appeared in an episode of Penny Dreadful, I think in the final season. The character based (loosely) on Frankenstein's monster sings a snippet of the song to a child freezing to death on an ice bound ship, which triggers a memory of his family from before he died and was resurrected.

142.254.38.65 (talk) 10:23, 11 February 2018 (UTC) C. McKenna, 2/11/2018[reply]

[Caneuon-1] Hywel, John (1987). Famous Songs of Wales/Caneuon Enwog Cymru. Penygroes, Caernarfon: Gwynn. ISBN 0-900426-60-8.

[1]