Thom's Irish Who's Who/Hughes, Herbert

HUGHES, Herbert, composer and critic. Educ. privately; was for a short time under the tuition of Dr. Francis Koeller, conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society, and later entered the R.C.M.; first appeared at Chappell's Ballad Concerts, Queen's Hall, London, Nov., 1904, accompanying his own arrangement of the well-known old Irish song "The Ninepenny Fidil." He has composed a ballet, a comic opera, a cycle of baritone songs, incidental music to an Irish masque, and other works, and has collected many unpublished traditional Irish airs from the peasantry of Ulster. His musical writings include articles in The Fortnightly Review, The Nationalist and other Irish journals; is one of the founders of the Irish Folk-Song Society, to whose journal he has occasionally contributed; He has also published a volume of Irish Folk-Songs, gathered in Donegal, under the title "Songs of Uladh"; son of Frederick Patrick Hughes and Mary Elizabeth MacLean; b. in Belfast 16th March, 1882. Res.: Edenville, Bangor, Co. Down, Ireland.