When Roberts was five months old, his fam­i­ly moved from Tanrhiwfelen to a house on the way to Penllwyn; in 1829 they moved to Pistyllgwyn, near Melindwr. At age 20, Rob­erts went to live in Aberystwyth, and in 1852 moved to Li­ver­pool and event­u­al­ly be­came ed­it­or of the Amserau. In 1858 he moved to Aber­dare, South Wales, and be­came ed­it­or of Gwladgarwr.

While in South Wales, Roberts be­gan preach­ing at month­ly serv­ic­es in the dis­trict of Gla­mor­gan. In 1859 he ac­cept­ed the post of min­is­ter at the church at Panttywyll Merthyr Tydfil. In Au­gust 1861, he was or­dained in Beth­le­hem Cha­pel and served un­til called to Capel Coch in Llanberis. He was or­dained there Au­gust 29, 1865, and re­mained re­tire­ment in 1869.

When Roberts left Beth­le­hem Cha­pel at Pantywyll for Capel Coch, the con­gre­ga­tion want­ed to com­mem­or­ate his con­tri­bu­tion to mu­sic in the town, so a com­mem­or­a­tive stone plaque was com­mis­sioned and placed in the cha­pel. It was tak­en from Beth­le­hem Cha­pel be­fore the Cha­pel was de­mol­ished, and trans­ferred to Soar-Ynysgau Cha­pel Merthyr.

Roberts was a teach­er, ed­it­or, min­is­ter, jour­nal­ist, lec­tur­er, po­et, com­poser and con­duct­or, tra­vel­ing all over South Wales. In 1859 he set up a chor­al un­ion in Aberdare, the cen­ter of the South Wales coal field. He was an imag­in­a­tive teach­er, and cre­at­ed me­thods of im­prov­ing Welsh chor­al sing­ing. He was al­so an ac­comp­lished mu­si­cian, con­duct­ing mu­sic fes­tiv­als and serv­ing as judge at the lo­cal eisteddfodau. Like ma­ny others, he was al­so a fer­vent Non­con­form­ist for whom sing­ing was an ex­pres­sion of a pure and god­ly way of life.

His 1859 Llyfr Tonau Cynulleidfaol dem­on­strat­ed his re­spect for class­ic­al mu­sic­al forms. In the same year he con­duct­ed, from Llyfr Tonau, the first hymn sing­ing meeting that may be prop­er­ly be called a Cymanfa Ganu. Con­gre­ga­tions were en­cour­aged to learn tunes from the Llyfr To­nau for a spe­ci­fic day when sev­er­al con­gre­ga­tions from one dis­trict would meet to sing under a guest con­duct­or, of­ten Roberts him­self. Since Llyfr Tonau was a book of tunes with­out words, the em­pha­sis was main­ly on the mu­sic, the goal be­ing to raise the stand­ard of Sun­day song. It was stressed that the meet­ing was not for choirs, but for whole con­gre­ga­tions. Roberts’ tunes were se­vere and un­em­bel­lished, but lat­er, part­ly due to the in­flu­ence of Sankey and Moody, sing­ing be­came less mu­sic­al­ly rig­orous and more emo­tion­al, and con­se­quent­ly more pop­u­lar.

From the 1880s, an­nu­al fes­tiv­als were es­tab­lished through­out Wales and be­yond. As time wore on, they be­came fur­ther re­moved from the needs of Sun­day worship. The Cymanfa Ganu, in be­com­ing a na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tion, ceased to be the ve­hicle of mu­sic­al ed­u­ca­tion and re­form which its found­ers had en­vis­aged. How­ever, the sound of Welsh hymns can still in­spire ev­en to­day.

After Roberts’ death, a me­mor­i­al fund was set up from pri­vate do­na­tions and col­lect­ions made at a num­ber of Cymanfaoedd Canu in North and South Wales. It was called the Ieuan Gwyllt and Tany­mar­ian Me­mor­ial Prize:

A Prize from the income of The Ieuan Gwyllt and Tanymarian Memorial Prize shall be award­ed for a com­po­si­tion of chor­al mu­sic with or with­out ac­com­pa­ni­ment sub­mit­ted in com­pe­ti­tion for the Prize by a Welsh mu­si­cian. The work must be set to Welsh words suit­a­ble for per­for­mance at re­li­gious and mu­sic­al fes­tiv­als.

Biography courtesy of Carl Llewellyn

Roberts’ works in­clude:

• Caniadau y Cyssegr, 1839
• Llyfr Tonau Cynulleidfaol (Congrega­tion­al Tune Book), 1859

Sources

Music

1. Ardudwy
2. Li­ver­pool
3. Llanfair
4. Moab
5. St. Denio [Joanna]