Dessa (Margret Wander) is an American singer, songwriter and rapper who is known mainly as a hip-hop artist. In a collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), she used the Welsh traditional song Tŷ Bach Twt as a stimulus.
Dessa fuses this song with competing themes and styles, including rap and blues.
There is some unaccompanied singing with punctuation from the orchestra to support the harmony and rhythm.
The instrumental accompaniment is varied in style. The piece begins in a minimal style where only a small number of instruments play a limited number of notes, for example the cello playing a pedal note and the Appalachian dulcimer introducing the melody and some accompanying harmony in thirds. Later in the song, many instruments join together to play in a more traditional orchestral style.
American rappers/singers Dessa and Abby Wolf perform a fusion version of the Welsh children’s song 'Tŷ Bach Twt' with members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
