John Ceiriog Hughes

John Ceiriog Hughes (born Sept. 25, 1832, Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, Denbighshire, Wales—died April 23, 1887, Caersws, Montgomeryshire) was a poet and folk musicologist who wrote outstanding Welsh-language lyrics.

After working successively as a grocer’s helper, a clerk in Manchester, and a railway official in Wales, Hughes began winning poetry prizes in the 1850s and thereafter published several volumes of verse, the first being Oriau’r Hwyr (1860; “Evening Hours”). Many of his lighthearted lyrics (totalling about 600) were adapted to old Welsh tunes; others were set to original music by various composers. He investigated the history of old Welsh airs and of the harpists with whom the tunes were identified. Of his projected four-volume compendium of Welsh airs, one volume, Cant o Ganeuon (1863; “A Hundred Poems”), appeared. He also wrote many satirical prose letters, collected in Gohebiaethau Syr Meurig Grynswth (1948; “Correspondence of Syr Meurig Grynswth”).