Ar Hyd y Nos (English: All Through the Night) is a Welsh song sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The most commonly sung Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887), and have been translated into several languages, including English (most famously by Harold Boulton) and Breton. One of the earliest English versions, to different Welsh lyrics by one John Jones, was by Thomas Oliphant in 1862.
The melody was used by John Gay in The Beggar's Opera. It is also used in the hymn "Go My Children With My Blessing."
The song is highly popular with traditional Welsh male voice choirs, and is sung by them at festivals in Wales and around the world.
The song is also sometimes considered a Christmas carol, and as such has been performed by many artists on Christmas albums, including Olivia Newton-John and Michael McDonald, who sang it as a duet on Newton-John's 2007 album Christmas Wish. Cerys Matthews sang it solo on her 2010 album Tir.
American spiritual singer Anthony Brown recorded the English version by Sir Harold Boulton on his 2006 album Each Other's Light, Songs Of Peace, Hope And Justice.
Different English lyrics were written by Sir Harold Boulton in 1884 and set to the same tune.
In an alternate version, the second verse is substituted with:
Another alternate version features a more neutral, night song text:
Yet another alternate version of the second verse is as follows:
A. G. Prys-Jones wrote a more literal but still rhyming version:
The tune is also used in the hymn "For the Fruit of All Creation" by Fred Pratt Green.
The first verse of Green's lyrics (used widely in the harvest season and at Thanksgiving) ends with these words:
"For the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping, Future needs in earth's safekeeping, thanks be to God."
Ferdinand Ries used the tune and variations upon it in Ouverture bardique (WoO 24, 1815).
British composer Cyril Scott used the tune for the first of his three British Melodies for piano (1912).
The doo-wop group The Mystics, in the line-up that included Paul Simon (then recording at Jerry Landis) had a hit with a sped-up version.
Peter, Paul and Mary sing a version on their children's album Peter, Paul and Mommy
Alan Stivell sings the song in Breton, Welsh and English on his 23rd album Emerald
The film Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, features his character's wife singing the English version of the song to their child.
An a cappella version of the song occurs very briefly at the end of the Vulcan/Volcano scene in Terry Gilliam's film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (1988) as Vulcan kisses Venus. It is assumed that the cyclopes/miners are the singers.
Carter Burwell's soundtrack to the film, The General's Daughter, features a version of the tune played on a glockenspiel.
In the 1945 film version of Emlyn Williams' The Corn Is Green, the children in the school are taught the English version.
In the 1949 British Ealing comedy film, A Run for Your Money, starring Donald Houston, the song is sung at the Amateur Night performance and also heard as a theme on the train trip home.
The TV movie A Child's Christmas in Wales features the family singing the song towards the end of the film, but in English.
In season 3 of the series Angel, the character Daniel Holtz is frequently heard singing the English version of this song.
In the episode "Thursday's Child" in season 5 of Road to Avonlea, Alec King (played by Cedric Smith) sings the English version of this song to his son Daniel. However, the lullaby applies to everyone else awake in the household, given the recent bout of tuberculosis in the youngest daughter, Cecily, which has thrown the family into crisis.
In the episode "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" of HBO's popular television show The Sopranos, Meadow Soprano and her choir sing the English version of the song, intercut with the mock execution of Christopher Moltisanti, and the real execution of Brendan Filone.
In Series Two, Episode 26 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the first two lines of the Welsh version are heard as an opening to a sketch about Welsh coal miners.
In Season Three, Episode 14 of Shining Time Station, Stacy Forgets Her Name, Grace and Rex in the Jukebox Band sing the first section of their lullaby medley to help Stacy Jones who has lost her memory.
Chapter IV of the 2015 video game The Order: 1886 features the Sir Harold Boulton lyrics of the folk song on a collectible wax cylinder in the psychiatric ward of The Royal London Hospital.
