All Through The Night (1784)
This old melody is a truly genuine and distinctive Welsh folk song. Its first appearance in print was in 1784 (just after the American Revolution) in a collection entitled "Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards". The composer is unknown.
The first set of lyrics to embrace this melody was probably written by the English authoress Amelia Opie on the subject of "Poor Mary Ann," and published together with five other Welsh songs around 1800.
Just how and when this song reached America and in what area is still a mystery. But we do know this song gained some fairly good popularity here around 1825, when John Quincy Adams became President of the twenty-four United States.
Many decades later Opie's lyrics were replaced by the English lyricist, Harold Boulton, those of "All Through The Night" instead of "Poor Mary Ann." Boulton's words are the lyrics sung today. The subject of Boulton's lyrics and his beauty of expression, coupled with the peaceful plaintiveness of the melody, have made this song one of the standards for singing groups and concert soloists, Thus its popularity has grown very slowly but quite steadily, and it is today a symbol of beauty and of the song-loving Welsh people.
~The American Song Treasury by Theodore Raph
23 окт 2024
