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"HELYNT CANTATA MERTHYR."

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"HELYNT CANTATA MERTHYR." LLYTHYR ODDIWRTH MR. SPENCER CURWEN. MR. GOL.Gan fod colofnau "prif bapyr y genedl wedi bod at wasanaeth teulu yr hel- ynt" uchod, a'u peneiwdawd." Crwydrad," alias Llew Llwyfo, a'u bod yn herio neb i brofi mai anwiredd ac athrod yw yr hyn a draethant am Dr. Parry parth ei feirniadaeth ar y Cantodau uchod sef mai ar ol dyfod i Ferthyr, ac ar ol gwybod pwy ydoedd Corelli," neu Mr. W. Jarrett Roberts, Caernarfon, y penderfynwyd atal y wobr,-efallai y byddwch garediced a chyhoeddi y llythyr canlynol oddiwrth Mr. Spencer Curwen. Gyrir ef yn y Saesonaeg, fel y caffo ymddangos air yn air y modd y derbyn- iwyd ef, ac nid oes eisieu gair o esboniad mae ei leferydd yn ddigon croew.—Yr eiddoch, UN O'R PWYLLGOR. (COPY.) Tonic Sol-fa College, Forest Gate, Nov. 7th, 1881. DEAR DR. PARRY,—I have been away on a lec- turing tour; hence I have only just received your letter of the 3rd. I am extremely reluctant to write a word about any of the adjudications at Merthyr, because it seems to me that it is no part of the duty of a judge to explain or defend his con- clusions. The work is hard and anxious enough while it lasts, and when it is done, no good can possibly come of further discussion. You beg me, however, as a personal favour, to recall the circum stances of the adjudication on the Cantata, and you say your reputation is concerned in the facts being known. You state them quite correctly in your letter. Writing from London a week or so before the meeting, I said to the Rev. Mr. Stephen that I thought Corelli's the best Cantata. When I met you at Merthyr, you shewed me your adjudication already written in Welsh, and said that if the prize were given at all, you were for awarding it to another competitor, whose motto I forget. But you added that you preferred to withhold the prize. This alternative had not occurred to me, new as I was to the task of adjudicating. I had felt, as I said in making the adjudication, that the prize Cantata ought to be of very great merit, and it had seemed to me that none of those sent in came up to the standard. But I thought that we were bound to award the prize, and so I voted for Corelli, whom I had placed first. But when you suggested the withholding, I at once concurred, and did so with much satisfaction. Conference of this sort between adjudicators seems to me both right and proper, and likely to serve the interests of justice. Although this decision was arrived at on musical grounds, I was very glad of it for an- other reason. I found that the Rev. Mr. Stephen, in his letters to me, displayed an extraordinary and almost desperate interest in the success of Corelli. Not only so. but from an abusive letter which I received in the pavilion on the day before the adjudication had to be given, I found that he had communicated to Corelli, or Corelli's friend, the contents of my private letters to him, and the fact that a difference of opinion existed between the judges. This seemed to me conduct most un- becoming in a judge, and most suggestive of bias. The moral to be drawn from this affair seems to me a double one. First, I think that coadjudica- tors should be compelled to meet for the purpose of conference before making their award. Had Mr. Stephen come to Merthyr, I am sure that the in- terests of justice would have been served. Second, I am convinced that the work of an adjudicator is made very much more difficult when he recognises, as Mr. Stephen and youiself involuntarily did, the personality of the competitors by their handwrit- ing. I saw enough of your conduct to know how anxious and conscientious you were in adjudicating. But it would, I am sure, be far better if strangers were engaged to adjudicate on the compositions; there would then be no possible suspicion of per- sonal likes and dislikes clouding the minds of the judges. I am sorry that you have been attacked about this award, but really the thing is not worth troubling over. We did our duty, and beside that, we have evidently given general satisfaction.— With kind regards, very truly yours, J. SPENCUB CURWEN.

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LLANDEILO FAWR.

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Tystiolaethau Pwysig 19 I…