Mervyn Roberts

{{Short description|Welsh composer (1906–1990)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}

{{infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = {{nowrap|William Henry Mervyn Roberts}}

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| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1906|11|23}}

| birth_place = {{nowrap|Abergele, Denbighshire, Wales}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1990|7|12|1906|11|23}}

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| education =

| alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge
Royal College of Music

| father = {{nowrap|John Roberts}}

| mother =

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| children =

| occupation = {{nowrap|Musician & teacher}}

| known_for =

| relatives = Trevor Roberts (brother)
John Roberts (paternal grandfather)
William Sproston Caine (maternal grandfather)

}}

Mervyn Roberts (23 November 1906 {{spaced ndash}} 12 July 1990), full name William Henry Mervyn Roberts, was a Welsh composer, best known for his piano music. Eiluned Davies regarded him as one of 'Y Pump Cymreig' (The Welsh Five) along with Denis ApIvor, Daniel Jones, Grace Williams and David Wynne, all born in the first two decades of the 20th Century.[https://www.tycerdd.org/mervyn-roberts 'Mervyn Roberts (1906-1990)', Tŷ Cerdd]Eiluned Davies. [http://welshmusicguild.wales/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/The-Piano-Music-of-Mervyn-Roberts.pdf 'The piano music of Mervyn Roberts'], in Cerddoriaeth Cymru Journal, 1973, Vol. 4, No. 3

Roberts was born into an aristocratic family in Abergele, Denbighshire - he was the second son of the first Lord Clwyd.Colin Scott-Sutherland. 'Mervyn Roberts (1906-1990)', in British Music, Vol 24 (2002), pp. 5-20 He studied English and history at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1925 until 1928, and then at the Royal College of Music with R. O. Morris, Gordon Jacob and Arthur Alexander. He was most successful as a composer during the 1940s and 1950s, when a number of his works were published. He was an occasional teacher, a contributor to music journals and during the war worked in the Civil Service. In 1947 he married the pianist Eileen Easom.[https://www.tycerdd.org/mervyn-roberts-obituary Obituary by Eiluned Davies] From 1963-67 he taught piano at Christ's Hospital, Horsham.[http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/mroberts.html Nigel Deacon. Mervyn Roberts Piano Music]

His music, chromatic but basically tonal, is almost entirely for the keyboard and follows in the tradition of Arnold Bax and John Ireland.Peter Crossley-Holland, rev. Malcolm Boyd. 'Roberts, (William Herbert) Mervyn', in Grove Music Online (2001) The piano works include the set of ten Variations on an Original Theme for two pianos (1932, revised 1942)Published by Novello in 1950 and the Piano Sonata (1934, revised 1949), which won the Edwin Evans Prize in 1950 when first performed that year by Helen Perkin. It was the first Welsh piano sonata to be published (in 1951, by Novello). Other works for piano include the grouped large-scale movements Ballad (1950), Barcarolle (1969, rev, 1983) and Romance (1957), the Sonatina (1948), the Four Preludes (1949), and the shorter pieces Summer's Day and Wind of Autumn. He also wrote solo songs, part songs and chamber music.{{Cite web |date=2009-04-04 |title=Mervyn Roberts |url=https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/composer/mervyn-roberts |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=British Music Collection |language=en}}

Christopher Williams has recorded the Sonata, the Four Preludes, the Sonatina and various shorter pieces.{{Cite web |title=Summer's Day (Piano Music by Mervyn Roberts; performed by Christopher Williams) |url=https://tycerddshop.com/products/mervyn-roberts-summers-day |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=Tŷ Cerdd}} Some of the works for piano duo - A Christmas Prelude, Passacaglia, the Two Chorales for two pianos and the Elegy for two pianos - have been recorded by Bruce Posner and Donald Garvelmann.[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/july00/onheatherhill.htm On Heather Hill: Duo-Piano Discoveries from the British Isles], Olympia OCD 680 (2000)