Herbert Hughes

Full biography Herbert Hughes

Herbert Hughes (1882-1937) was an Irish composer, music critic, and folksong arranger, born on March 16, 1882, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Belfast and completed his musical education at the Royal College of Music in London. He contributed music reviews to the journal "The Academy," and later became "The Times" music critic from 1912 to 1923.

Hughes was an avid collector of Irish folk songs, and he collaborated with several prominent writers, including W. B. Yeats, whom he assisted on a number of occasions in settings of his poems to music. Hughes also worked closely with the English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, in collecting folksongs in southern Ireland. Alongside with collecting and preserving Irish folk music he wrote several compositions as well.

Hughes' most famous work is probably his setting of the traditional Irish ballad "She Moved Through the Fair," which was later made famous by a number of musicians, including the likes of Van Morrison and Sinead O'Connor.

Hughes passed away at the age of 55 on May 1, 1937, in London, England. His contributions to preserving and promoting Irish folk music and his work as a respected music critic continue to be celebrated to this day.