Jenkins, David

Composer

b Trecastle (Trecastell), nr Llandovery, Powys (Brecons), Wales 1848, d Aberystwyth, Cardigans, Wales 1915. Losing his father when he was very young, he had some basic education before he became apprenticed to a tailor, but gave this up to study music, self-taught by Tonic Sol-Fa before becoming a pupil of Joseph Parry qv. He studied at Cambridge for his BMus, 1878 and became Lecturer in Music in the new department at University Coll, Aberystwyth where he spent the rest of his life, as its Prof of Music from 1910. He proved a key figure in the rebirth of Welsh music and took a leading part in provincial and national Eisteddfodau and conducting for other festivals, and composed oratorios, cantatas, songs, anthems, several hymn tunes and an opera. Gemau Mawl was a hymn-tune compilation which he edited, and his Psalm of Life, composed for the 1895 Cardiff Triennial Festival, was also sung that same year by a 2000-strong choir at London’s Crystal Palace. See also Alan Luff, Welsh Hymns and their Tunes (1990) pp 41 and 209–211. No.748.