Herbert Hughes (16 May 1882 – 1 May 1937) was an Irish composer, music critic and a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs. He was the father of

Spike Hughes Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes (19 October 1908 – 2 February 1987) was a British musician, composer and arranger involved in the worlds of classical music and jazz. He has been called Britain's earliest jazz composer. Later in his career, he ...

Biography

Hughes was born and brought up in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including perform ...

, London, where he studied with

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...

and Charles Wood, graduating in 1901. Subsequently, he worked as a music critic, notably for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' from 1911 to 1932. Described as having an "ardent and self-confident manner", Hughes is first heard of in an Irish musical capacity (beyond being honorary organist at St Peter's Church on

Antrim Road The Antrim Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to De ...

at the age of fourteen) collecting traditional airs and transcribing folksongs in North Donegal in August 1903 with his brother Fred, F.J. Bigger, and John Campbell. Dedicated to seeking out and recording such ancient melodies as were yet to be found in the more remote glens and valleys of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

, he produced ''Songs of Uladh'' (1904) with

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

, illustrated by his brother John and paid for by Bigger. Throughout his career, he collected and arranged hundreds of traditional melodies and published many of them in his own unique arrangements. Three of his best-known works are the celebrated songs, '' My Lagan Love'', '' She Moved Through the Fair'', and '' Down by the Salley Gardens'', which were published as part of his four collections of ''Irish Country Songs'', his key achievement. These were written in collaborations with the poets

and

Padraic Colum Padraic Colum (8 December 1881 – 11 January 1972) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Revival. Early life Col ...

, and

Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

himself. A dispute with

Hamilton Harty Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty (4 December 1879 – 19 February 1941) was an Irish composer, conductor, pianist and organist. After an early career as a church organist in his native Ireland, Harty moved to London at about age 20, soon becoming a w ...

over copyright on ''My Lagan Love'' was pursued on Bigger's advice, but failed. Married to Lillian Florence (known as Meena) Meacham and Suzanne McKernan, Herbert had three children: Patrick (known professionally as

), Angela and Helena. He died in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, England, at the relatively early age of fifty-four.

Music

Hughes had a unique approach to arranging Irish traditional music. He called upon the influence of the French impressionist

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

in his approach to harmony: "Musical art is gradually releasing itself from the tyranny of the tempered scale. ��and if we examine the work of the modern French school, notably that of M. Claude Debussy, it will be seen that the tendency is to break the bonds of this old slave-driver and return to the freedom of primitive scales." He regarded arrangements as an independent art form on an equal level with original composition: " ��under his .e. the arranger'shands it is definitively transmuted into an art-song, an art-song of its own generation.". Hughes's folksong arrangements have been sung all across the English-speaking world; John McCormack and

Kathleen Ferrier Kathleen Mary Ferrier, CBE (22 April 19128 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the cl ...

were the first to record them on gramophone records. An admirer of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

's poetry, Hughes in 1933 edited ''The Joyce-Book'', a volume of settings of Joyce's poetry, with 13 pieces by 13 composers including, besides Hughes himself,

Arnold Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral musi ...

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

, Herbert Howells,

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

, and non-British composers such as George Antheil, Edgardo Carducci-Agustini, and

Albert Roussel Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...

. The large-format, blue-cloth covered volume has since become a collector's item. Hughes also composed a limited amount of original chamber music (a violin sonata is mentioned in a letter to Hughes from

Bernard van Dieren Bernard Hélène Joseph van Dieren (27 December 188724 April 1936) was a Dutch composer, critic, author, and writer on music, much of whose working life was spent in England. Biography Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Dutch Rotterda ...

dated 4 April, 1932),Lloyd, Stephen, ed.
Music in Their Time: The Memoirs and Letters of Dora and Hubert Foss
' (2019) and some scores for the stage (like ''And So to Bed'' by John Bernard Fagan) and film. Hughes and

John Robert Monsell John Robert "Jack" Monsell (15 August 1877 – 20 March 1952) was an Irish illustrator. Monsell was born at Cahirciveen, County Kerry, to a wealthy Anglo-Irish family. His father, William Thomas Monsell (1843–1887), was a magistrate and in ...

also created songs for a musical version of

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as '' The Rivals'', ''The ...

's '' The Rivals'' called '' Rivals!'', which was staged at the Kingsway Theatre in London in October 1935 by

Vladimir Rosing Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...

and ran for 86 performances.

Selected works

Folksong arrangements

* ''Songs of Uladh'' (Belfast, 1904) * ''Irish Country Songs'', four volumes (London, 1909, 1915, 1934, 1936) * ''Historical Songs and Ballads of Ireland'' (London, 1922) * ''Old Irish Melodies'' (London, 1931)

Original compositions

Vocal * ''She Weeps over Rahoon'' (James Joyce) for voice and piano (London, 1933, in ''The Joyce-Book'') * choral works such as ''Two Old Testament Spirituals'', ''Boreens of Derry'', ''Christmas Time'', ''Doctor Foster'' Instrumental * ''Three Impressions for Wind Quintet'' (n.d.) * ''Three Moods for Brass Quartet'' (n.d.)

Selected recordings

* ''The Last Rose of Summer. Best Loved Songs of Ireland'', performed by Ann Murray (mezzo) and Graham Johnson (piano), on: Hyperion CDA 66627 (1993); re-issued as CDH 55210 (2005). Contains: ''The Leprehaun''; ''I Have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue''; ''A Young Maid Stood in her Father's Garden''; ''The Next Market Day''; ''The Bard of Armagh''; ''Monday, Tuesday''; ''The Stuttering Lovers''; ''I Will Walk with my Love''; ''The Cork Leg'', besides song arrangements by John A. Stevenson, Charles V. Stanford,

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

, etc. * ''A Purse of Gold. Irish Songs by Herbert Hughes'', performed by

Ailish Tynan Ailish Tynan (born 1975) is an Irish operatic soprano. She was born in Mullingar, Ireland. Career Tynan trained at Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2000, ...

(soprano) and

Iain Burnside Iain Burnside is a Scottish classical pianist and accompanist, and a former presenter on BBC Radio 3. Following study at Merton College, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy, in Warsaw he became a freelance pianist, specia ...

(piano), on: Signum Classics SIG CD 106 (2007). Contains: ''Reynardine''; ''The Fanaid Grove''; ''The Leprehaun''; ''When through Life unblest we Rove''; ''Oh, Breath not his Name''; ''I'm a Decent Good Irish Body''; ''She Weeps over Rahoon''; ''The Magpie's Nest''; ''Johnny Doyle''; ''Cruckhaun Finn''; ''Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye''; ''The Gartan Mother's Lullaby''; ''You Couldn't Stop a Lover''; ''I Will Walk with my Love''; ''She Moved thro' the Fair''; ''The Bard of Armagh''; ''The Old Turf Fire''; ''O Father, Father, Build me a Boat''; ''B for Blarney''; ''She Lived beside the Anner''; ''The Stuttering Lovers''; ''I Know where I'm Goin; ''A Young Maid Stood in her Father's Garden''; ''The Spanish Lady''; ''Tigaree torum orum''.Signum Records
/ref> * ''The Leprechaun'', with Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano) and Martin Katz (piano), CBS, 1982

Bibliography

* David Byers: "Herbert Hughes – A Centenary Note", in: ''Soundpost'' 2 (1982) March-issue, p. 6. * Axel Klein: ''Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert'' (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1996), .

References

External links

The Modernist Journals Project
– biographical entry
The Contemporary Music Centre
– biographical entry * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Herbert 1882 births 1937 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century male musicians Alumni of the Royal College of Music Impressionist composers Irish classical composers Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish male classical composers Irish music critics Musicians from Belfast