Williams, Grace (Mary) (1906–1977)

Welsh composer. She was educated at Cardiff University, where she took a degre in music in 1926; she also studied with Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music 1926–30 and with Egon Wellesz in Vienna 1930–31.

Works Opera The Parlour (1961).

Voice and orchestra Hymn of Praise (Gogonedawg Arglwydd, from the 12th-century Black Book of Carmarthen) for chorus and orchestra (1939); two psalms for soprano and orchestra, The Song of Mary (Magnificat) for soprano and orchestra.

Orchestral Welsh overture Hen Walia, legend Rhiannon, Fantasy on Welsh Nursery Rhymes, symphonic impressions Owen Glendower (after Shakespeare's Henry IV), Penillion (1955); violin concerto (1950); Sinfonia concertante for piano and orchestra (1941); elegy and Sea Sketches for string orchestra.

Other songs to words by Herrick, Byron, Belloc, D H Lawrence, and others; arrangements of Welsh folk songs.