Phyllis Kinney obit

Tribute to Phyllis Kinney

 

She was not on the list.

The National Library of Wales extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Phyllis Kinney, one of the most influential figures in traditional Welsh music. Through her work as a singer, scholar, collector and historian, she made an outstanding contribution to protecting, interpreting and promoting the musical heritage of Wales to generations of researchers, performers and audiences. Her dedication to the Welsh language and Welsh culture was a constant inspiration.

Dr Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, Chief Executive of the National Library of Wales, said:

“Phyllis Kinney was a scholar of international renown and a great friend to Wales. Throughout her long and productive life, she bridged cultures and ensured that the musical traditions of Wales were recorded, understood and appreciated. Her legacy, along with that of Meredydd Evans, continues in the Library's collections and in the nation's cultural life.”

Nia Mai Daniel, Head of Unique Collections Department and one who got to know Phyllis well, said:

“It was a privilege to get to know Phylis and collaborate with her to transfer her musical archive to the National Library of Wales. She had immersed herself in our folk culture, working side by side with her husband Mered on their thorough research into traditional Welsh music. He was particularly generous in sharing his knowledge, and enthusiastic in inspiring a new generation of researchers and musicians.”

Her immense contribution to the cultural life of Wales and her passion for folk music will continue to inspire for many years to come. The Library is grateful to the family that the archive of Merêd and Phyllis, which includes their detailed and valuable research into traditional music, is preserved here for the benefit of future generations.

Phyllis will be greatly missed, but her legacy remains an integral part of the musical story of Wales.

Kinney was born in Pontiac, Michigan on 4 July 1922. After completing her education at Pontiac High School, Kinney enrolled at Michigan State College in East Lansing. There, she was tutored in music by Gomer Llewelyn Jones, a Welshman who had moved to America in 1934. Jones sparked an interest in Welsh music in Kinney, who later said she had "hardly heard of Wales" before meeting him. By 1942, Kinney was giving public performances of Welsh songs, assisted by Jones at the piano. Jones considered her soprano renditions to bring "a vivid understanding of the character of the Welsh people" to audiences in Michigan. Kinney graduated in 1943 and secured a fellowship at the Juilliard School in New York City.

In 1947, Kinney became lead solo with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. With the company, she toured the UK in March of that year. During a stop in Bangor, Wales, Kinney met Meredydd Evans, a Welsh folk musician who was a member of the popular close harmony group Triawd y Coleg. Kinney learnt to speak, read and write Welsh, and introduced Evans to folk music from around the world. The couple married on 10 April 1948 and had a daughter, Eluned, in 1949.

Like Evans, Kinney began to work for the BBC, often performing duets with her husband. Kinney sang in "impeccable Welsh, which had a delightful American burr occasionally", according to the Western Mail. In June 1952, the family moved to America, where Evans enrolled at Princeton University. In 1960, the family moved back to Wales, where they settled. With Evans, Kinney edited collections of Welsh songs described as "definitive reference-works for this genre of national song." In 1962, Kinney provided operatic vocal accompaniment on Evans' album A Concert of Welsh Songs, with backing by the Russian harpist Maria Korchinska and several musicians and singers conducted and arranged by Robert Docker. Kinney later described the album, Evans' first to use instrumental backing, as "tradition dressed up to suit the audience".

In the 1980s, Kinney and Evans settled in Cwmystwyth, where they contributed to the community and taught Welsh to a host of their non-Welsh-speaking neighbours; according to biographer R. Arwel Jones, the couple's home became "a magnet for people of all ages, from all over Wales and the world who would flock there to enjoy their company and to benefit from the couple's intellectual generosity". Their home's proximity to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth allowed the couple to devote their retirement to studying the history of folk songs and tunes, and their research appeared regularly in Canu Gwerin, the journal of the Welsh Folk Song Society. Kinney was awarded an honorary M Mus degree by the University of Wales in 1991 and became honorary fellow of Bangor University alongside her husband in 1997. In April 2007, the University of Wales published a Festschrift volume for Evans and Kinney, "a fully bilingual collection of critical essays on various aspects of Welsh song and traditional music by Wales’ leading experts and musicologists" to celebrate their contribution "not only to Welsh traditional music but to the very culture and language of Wales."

Being Welsh is like belonging to an exclusive club without membership. I can appreciate why Welshmen want to preserve their language. It's a beautiful, imaginative language.

— Phyllis Kinney, 1964

In 2011, University of Wales Press published Kinney's final book to date, Welsh Traditional Music, an extensive history and analysis of the instrumental and vocal traditions of Wales.