Cambria for 2 Harps

Cambria is the second of John Thomas’s duets based on Welsh Melodies, the first being Scenes of Childhood. ‘Scenes of Childhood’ received its first performance in a concert of Welsh Music held at London’s Crystal Palace in July 1862. The harpists were John Thomas himself, and Frederick Chatterton, harpist to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and Thomas’s former professor at the Royal Academy of Music. The great success of this arrangement led to the composition of another in the same genre, premiered at London’s St James’s Hall on ‘St David’s Eve’ (28 February), 1863.