Henry Philerin Hudson (1798 – 6 January 1889) was an Irish composer, folk song collector and scholar.

Life

Born at The Hermitage (now St Enda's), Rathfarnham,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Hudson was the son of the eminent dentist, Edward Hudson, and has also practiced as dental surgeon on Grafton Street, Dublin. He was involved with Dublin musical societies including the Anacreontic Society, the Philharmonic Society, and the Metropolitan Choral Society. He was also a council member of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland and was elected Member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

(RIA).

Folk song collector

At the age of 14, Hudson transcribed the music manuscripts of Irish language teacher and lexicographer Edward O'Reilly (1765–1830). However, little was added to his collection until around 1840. His interest in Irish traditional music was rekindled by a statement by collector Edward Bunting (1773–1843) to the effect that no newly composed tunes sounded characteristic of the Irish style. Hudson felt that he and others could compose melodies that sounded traditional, and he began to compose sample pieces. Between 1841 and 1843 he edited the music section of the literary magazine ''The Citizen'', publishing 106 tunes from his own collection. Many of the tunes he published were his own compositions but were presented as traditional melodies and given a false provenance to back them up. Hudson felt vindicated when he heard that Bunting had expressed some jealousy towards Hudson's published airs. Henry Hudson never publicly admitted to his deceit, and several of his compositions appear as traditional melodies in the manuscripts and publications of other collectors. His collection numbered 870 melodies at the time of his death. In 1901, the various volumes of his manuscript collection were privately sold, though it is now publicly available at the National Library of Ireland, the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

, and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Henry's brother William Elliott Hudson (1796–1853) was also a collector of Irish folk songs and a more prolific composer.

Composer

Besides pseudo-traditional melodies, Hudson also composed original songs and piano music. The National Library of Ireland possesses a volume of 30 songs in English and another with 20 songs to German words. He also collaborated with

Vincent Novello Vincent Novello (6 September 17819 August 1861), was an English musician and music publisher born in London. He was a chorister and organist, but he is best known for bringing to England many works now considered standards, and with his son he cr ...

in an English version of Beethoven's '' Christ on the Mount of Olives'' (''Christus am Ölberge''), published in Boston in 1853.O'Brien Moran (2013), p. 502.

Bibliography

* Jimmy O'Brien Moran: "Henry Philerin Hudson, MRIA: an Irish Macpherson?", in: ''Béaloideas'' vol. 81 (2013), pp. 150–169.

References

External links