The Impossible Dream:
Winning at the International Musical Eisteddfod

On July 12, 2003 Mastersingers USA competed for the first time in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod at Llangollen, Wales.  An “eisteddfod” in Welsh is simply a gathering for some kind of exchange:  cultural, political, etc.  This particular event, however, which has been held annually since 1946, has become the premier international competition for musicians and musical groups, comprised of several thousand people who compete in 30 categories.  (Click here for update of 9/12/07.)

Our director, Bruce McInnes, participated in the International Eisteddfod as a member of the Yale Glee Club in 1963 (they placed 2nd).  For the rest of us, however, this was a completely new experience.

Although there are competitions for solo vocalists and instrumentalists and for large and small mixed choirs, the premier event is the competition among male choirs, which are so popular in Wales.  We were pitted against 13 other choruses, 6 from Wales, 6 from England, and one from Germany.  (A chorus cannot compete without prequalifying.)  Of the 14 men’s choruses, we were scheduled to sing in the 12^th position in the nearly 5-hour competition.)

Each group was to sing 3 pieces:  (1) a required piece called “Daffodils,” which could be sung in either Welsh or English, (2) a piece by a composer from the group’s own country, and (3) any other piece.  The latter two pieces were limited to 9 minutes’ duration.  The pieces we selected were “All That Hath Life and Breath” by Rene Claussen and “Thy Word Is a Lantern” by Fenno Heath.  As for “Daffodils,” we decided to sing it in Welsh, thinking that the effort required to sing the piece in its native language would go over well with what we presumed would be a largely Welsh audience and judging cadre.

Each of us had devoted enormous effort to memorizing “Daffodils” and getting the pronunciation right.  (All our music is memorized anyway.)  One of our members carefully transcribed a recording of a Welshman reading the text and prepared a study edition for us to use in learning the words before we met for pre-tour rehearsals. Then, when we were in Dublin singing with the Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir, we asked their director (himself a Welshman) to go over the pronunciation and correct our mistakes.  One of our members videotaped his response, and another member did a painstaking analysis of the video, re-editing our working scores with a sung transliteration of the Welsh and paying careful attention to dynamics and the handling of dipthongs (which are so complicated in Welsh).

We gave our best effort to the assembled audience (of about 1500 in a hall that accommodated 4,500) and to the panel of 5 judges.  It created quite a stir when the emcee told them that we were from all over the U.S. and 2 other countries and that we convene to rehearse only one weekend a year.  People were also surprised to hear that we would try “Daffodils” in Welsh (no other non-Welsh group did), and we must have gotten the pronunciation right because they were very enthusiastic when we finished.

We felt we had done our best – which was our primary goal – but we felt we had also done well in comparison to the other choruses, some of whom had been past winners.  But we had to wait more than an hour for the results.  These consisted of a detailed critique of each group’s performance of each piece, and when these critiques were concluded, scores were given for each piece – first in Welsh and then in English, followed by a composite score.

It took a few seconds to realize that our overall score was the highest.  Then we exploded with pent-up emotion on having achieved what had seemed impossible, something we had not even dared to dream of.  And our joy and exultation was shared by the family members who had joined us for the latter part of the tour and by our new-found fans among those who had heard us sing for the first time.  When our director went to the stage in front of the cameras of BBC Television/Wales to receive the prize plaque (and later, a check for £1000), in what was the culmination of a quest he had begun 46 years earlier, we realized that we had just had the experience of a lifetime.

We weren't through, though.  We learned that our win in the male choir competition has qualified us to be in the "Choir of the World" competition that evening, to begin in just a few hours.  Practically and emotionally, we were hardly prepared for another competition, Bruce chose 3 of our best pieces — Mary Had a Baby, Ave Maria (Biebl), and Soon Ah Will Be Done — and we got ready to go before a larger audience (the 4,500 capacity of the venue), not to mention the cameras of BBC/Wales.

We were the third of three groups to perform, and we gave it our best despite our fatigue.  But the top prize went to the Northridge Singers of California State University, a mixed choir of college kids, who put on a brilliant performance, with elaborate choreography and percussion.  So we didn't succeed in the final competition (doing so would have meant we could never compete again), but we still left Llangollen with the feeling that we were winners and had accomplished the goals we came with — and more.

Note:  Photos 3-8 were taken by Fotofire Limited.  Prints of these and other Eisteddfod scenes are available through their Website at www.fotofire.com.

Update, 9/12/07.  The death of Luciano Pavarotti prompted the following story that was shared with Mastersingers USA members by our director, Bruce McInnes via e-mail:

Pavarotti in the Land of Song
How a slim Italian trainee teacher became convinced he had a voice to enchant the world
By Peter Popham
Published: 09 September 2007

Never again was he to be so self-effacing. In the old black-and-white photograph of Modena's amateur male voice choir, Luciano Pavarotti is dead centre but right at the back. He seems no larger than anyone else in the Societa Corale Gioachino Rossini, and the only familiar features are the bushy black eyebrows. The man whose great belly dominates the picture is his father, Fernando, scowling out at the camera from the front row.

The picture was Pavarotti's souvenir from the event that gave him a first inkling that life might hold more than primary school teaching, door-to-door insurance selling or accounting – the respectable jobs into which his factory worker mother was determined to cram her ungainly son.

The year was 1955, and Pavarotti padre e figlio had ventured far from Modena to the Welsh town of Llangollen to compete in its international eisteddfod. Pavarotti was 19 and training to be a teacher. His father, a baker and a keen amateur tenor all his life, was a mainstay of the choir. For both men, singing was no more than an exhilarating hobby.

But the lads from north Italy came first – to general astonishment, as Pavarotti told the tale later. In 1995, he went back to Llangollen to share his memories of the event. "Forty years ago," he said, "my God it seems to be just yesterday for me. I have done so many things ... When the journalists ask me what was the most memorable day in my life, I always say that it is when I won this competition because it was with all my friends." Then Pavarotti brought his father Fernando on stage. "He is stronger than me and has a voice more brilliant than mine," he went on. "At least that's what he thinks." Fernando died only five years ago.

Back in 1955, young Pavarotti and three other singers boarded with Alice Griffiths in the village of Froncysyllte, not far from Llangollen, in North Wales

"I remember well the house I stayed in," he said. "All the way from Italy I was exercising my English. But when we were brought to the house to meet the family, I understand not a word. I did not know there was such a language as Welsh."

The chief executive of the Llangollen Eisteddfod, Gwyn Williams, confirmed that the Modena choir's success had inspired Pavarotti to turn professional. "He once said that if he could win the first prize with a small choir from Modena, he could do anything," said Mr Williams. "And that was his attitude to singing all his life."

The Llangollen organisers hoped that Big Luciano would return for one last concert during his farewell tour but it was not to be. During his illness Mr Williams contacted the singer's agent and asked her to tell Pavarotti that he was in their thoughts. "Someone once said he had the sun in his voice and they were right," he said. "This is a very sad day."