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.

Biography

Hughes was born and brought up in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) 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 pe ...

, 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 music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

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 British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' 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 (Northern Ireland), A6 road, a traffic rou ...

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 (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

, he produced ''Songs of Uladh'' (1904) with Joseph Campbell, 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 Joseph Campbell 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 Co ...

, and Yeats 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 ...

over copyright on ''My Lagan Love'' was pursued on Bigger's advice, but failed. Married to Lillian Florence (known as Meena) Meacham, Herbert had a son, the musician and author Patrick Cairns, known professionally as Spike Hughes. In 1922 he married his second wife Suzanne McKernan, a member of the Irish Players, and there were two daughters, Angela and Helena. Angela wrote the memoir ''Chelsea Footprints'' in 2008. Helena is an actress who appeared in the first production of '' Look Back in Anger''. Herbert died in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, 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 influe ...

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

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

'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, Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, and non-British composers such as

George Antheil George Johann Carl Antheil ( ; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of the ear ...

, Edgardo Carducci-Agustini, and Albert Roussel. 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 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 also created songs for a musical version of

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1812, representing the constituencies of Stafford, Westminster and I ...

's ''

The Rivals ''The Rivals'' is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 List of Maverick ...

'' called '' Rivals!'', which was staged at the Kingsway Theatre in London in October 1935 by Vladimir Rosing 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 of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, etc. * ''A Purse of Gold. Irish Songs by Herbert Hughes'', performed by Ailish Tynan (soprano) and Iain Burnside (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 * * * * Angela Hughes.
Chelsea Footprints: A Thirties Chronicle
' (2008), Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Herbert 1882 births 1937 deaths 20th-century classical composers from Northern Ireland 20th-century male musicians from Northern Ireland Alumni of the Royal College of Music Impressionist composers Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Male classical composers from Northern Ireland Music critics from Northern Ireland Musicians from Belfast 20th-century non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland Artists' Rifles soldiers 1900s in Irish music 1910s in Irish music 1920s in Irish music 1930s in Irish music