ABSTRACT
Morfydd Owen’s death was described by David Evans, her Cardiff University Professor, as ‘an incalculable loss to Welsh music’. By the age of 26, Owen had worked as a pianist, mezzo-soprano and composer, and completed 250 manuscripts, including orchestral, chamber and choral works, songs to Welsh, English and French texts, and transcriptions and arrangements of Welsh and Russian folksongs. Prevented by the First World War from taking up a University of Wales Fellowship to study in St Petersburg, Owen focused instead on developing a London career. She published with Boosey and Chappell, and achieved performances at the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, although her work was largely redefined to housewife and secretary following a clandestine marriage to the psychoanalyst Ernest Jones. Owen died in mysterious circumstances following an appendectomy performed in her husband’s family home at Oystermouth on the Gower Peninsula: a tragic end to a pioneering career that continues to intrigue and inspire. This chapter considers a remarkable woman’s remarkable work, re-evaluating Morfydd Owen; traces her influence upon other creative practitioners including poets, novelists and choreographers; and examines how her life and music have come to international attention and recognition.
