Annotation:March of the Men of Harlech

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MARCH OF THE MEN OF HARLECH (Gorhoffedd Gwyr Harlech). AKA - "Men of Harlech." Welsh, March (4/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The music was first printed in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards (London, 1784). Different sets of words have been set to the tune. It was published in Gems of Welsh Melody (ed. John Owen, "Owain Alaw", 1860), the Welsh lyrics by "Talhaiarn", the English by W.H. Baker. Another lyric, by John Oxenford, appears in The Songs of Wales, (ed. Brinley Richards, 1873). Welsh words were also added to the tune by the poet John Ceiriog Hughes and published in his 1890 volume Cant O Ganeuon (One Hundred Songs); an English translation followed a few years later.

The march was supposed by some to have been composed during the Wars of the Roses, when Harlech Castle was besieged by the forces of Edward IV during the years 1468-1469. The castle was a celebrated Welsh fortress, having been built c. 530, and it is perhaps the oldest British fort whose remains are still standing. Bayard (1981) found a southwestern Pennsylvania fifer's version of the tune called "Nixon No 2." "Men of Harlech" was the regimental march of the South Wales Borderers. It was the first tune Gloucestershire fiddler Stephen Baldwin (1873-1955) learned from his father.

The music and song are featured in the 1964 film Zulu.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Cole (Cole's Pocket Companion for the Flute, Flagolet and the Violin), No. 5, p. 4. Wier, 1918, 1920, 1922; p. 314.

Recorded sources:

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