OWEN, RICHARD GRIFFITH (Pencerdd Llyfnwy; 1869 - 1930), musician
Name: Richard Griffith Owen
Pseudonym: Pencerdd Llyfnwy
Date of birth: 1869
Date of death: 1930
Parent: Mary Owen
Parent: Hugh Owen
Gender: Male
Occupation: musician
Area of activity: Music; Performing Arts
Author: Robert David Griffith
Born 1 April 1869 at Pen-yr-yrfa, Tal-y-sarn, Caernarfonshire, the son of Hugh Owen and Mary Owen of Bryn-y-Coed, Tal-y-sarn, his wife. He learnt to play the ‘cello and the clarinet and to make orchestral arrangements. Later, he became responsible for writing the orchestral arrangements of hymn-tunes, etc., which were sung at singing festivals held by Calvinistic Methodists and Congregationalists in Caernarvonshire and elsewhere. He took the prize at the Corwen national eisteddfod, 1919, for orchestral arrangements of some Welsh airs. Other eisteddfodic successes were a temperance cantata, and anthems. He published a collection of hymn-tunes under the title of Llais y Durtur and there are hymn-tunes by him in Llyfr Tonau y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd a Wesleyaidd and in Perorydd yr Ysgol Sul. He. died 24 May 1930, and was buried in the Caernarvon cemetery.