Dacw 'Nghariad (There Is My Love)

About this piece

Dacw 'Nghariad is Gavin Higgins's setting of a Welsh folk song for solo cello. He came across the song while writing a cantata for the Aldeburgh Festival based on the Welsh myth of Llyn y Fan Fach. In his note, Higgins writes that 'the song is about longing; longing for something that is unreachable and distant, for the moment at least.' It began as the first movement of his Seven Welsh Folk Songs for solo violin (2020–21), which Thomas Gould recorded on the Nimbus Alliance album Ekstasis. Reviewing that disc, Planet Hugill called the set 'closer to Bartók than RVW'. The cello version is marked 'dolce espressivo, freely' and to be played poco sul tasto. The folk melody is wrapped in a continuous two-voice texture of chromatic double stops and ornaments. Nimbus Music Publishing published separate solo cello (NMP1324) and solo viola (NMP1325) editions in July 2025.

Technical overview

A single movement of about 4 minutes in free, rubato tempo (quaver = c. 98). It needs sustained two-voice playing in double stops, with chromatic intervals and occasional three-note chords. There are grace notes, triplet and quintuplet groupings, string indications (III, I), poco sul tasto, and dynamics from p to f, mostly in bass clef and lower positions.

Technical focus

• Double Stops
• Legato
• Rubato
• String Crossings
• Rhythm
• Dotted Rhythms
• C String Notes
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics