CELTA
PERSONAL BACKGROUND
Paisaje galés
Welsh landscape
I was born in Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin in Welsh), South Wales and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School there. Education was, for many of us in South Wales, the crucial factor in building a successful and fulfilling career. For me, at that time, it was an escape route. I was attracted to Spanish, albeit in a superficial sense, before I took up the language at school. Hispanic and Iberian culture, as I saw it, had an exoticism, vibrancy and colour which contrasted sharply with everyday life in a small Welsh town. I studied harmony and composition with the great Gerwyn Thomas at school. The Spanish language and the music of Spain were important components in my studies, to degree level, in Portsmouth (where I studied Spanish Music under Peter Craddock and Spanish History with the legendary Dr. Patrick Williams) and then London. I completed my dissertation on the Catalan composer/pianist Isaac Albéniz. I have combined a career in teaching Spanish with a variety of musical activities - composing, teaching, performing solo and performing in groups. I currently reside and work in West Sussex, England.
I was introduced to the marvels of Irish music in the Eighties, courtesy of Mike Sheehan in Salisbury, and travelled on numerous occasions to Northern Spain in the Nineties. It was gradually dawning on me that the culture from which I was endeavouring to escape and the one to which I was supposed to be escaping actually shared more common features than they exhibited differences. Both Wales and Northern Spain are similar in terms of scenery (mountains and rivers; is there really a connection between the Welsh word for water (dwr) and the River Duero in Northern Spain?), gastronomy (hearty stews like 'Fabada', 'Cawl' and 'Caldo') climate (it rains more in Santiago than it does in Swansea!), language (there are several fascinating connections), poetic genius (Rosalía de Castro and Dylan Thomas) and music (the harp, for example, is popular in both Wales and Northern Spain). The more I explored the realms of Catalunya, Euskadi, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia the more it seemed like a homecoming.
In July 2000, at the age of 43, I suffered a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage which necessitated emergency brain surgery. This took place at Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith, West London. I managed to survive. I cannot express my gratitude to surgeon O'Neill, his team and all the nurses (Viv in particular) in words so the music CD I have recorded will have to do instead. All proceeds from the sale of Celta will be donated to the hospital where my life was saved. I have returned to work full time and am now able to do all the things I used to do without any significant problems. I was one of the lucky ones. As for the future, I think I will always be a teacher, in one sense or another, but I also intend to put a variety of musical ideas into practice. I doubt very much if I would have been inclined to do so had I not been made aware, suddenly and traumatically, of the fragility and vulnerability of our existence.
Graham Davies
Santiago de Compostela, 1999.