The Songs of Victor Hely-Hutchinson
As part of our Heritage Records projects we are currently working on a recording of the songs of South African born composer Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901-1947).
​
Christian Victor Noel Hope Hely-Hutchinson was born in Cape Town, South Africa. The son of Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson (the Governor of Cape Colony from 1901 to 1910). Victor was a musical child prodigy, who began composing before the age of ten, with his first published works being A Child's Thoughts (1909) - a collection of sketches for violin and piano.
In 1910 his family moved to England and he was initially educated at Heatherdown School in Berkshire before moving to Eton College and then read history at Balliol College, Oxford. After a year at Oxford he went on to study a Mus. Bac. at the Royal College of Music where he studied conducting under Adrian Boult. After graduation he went on to teach at the South African College of Music.
In 1926, he once again returned to England where he took up a position at the BBC at Savoy Hill as a conductor, pianist, and accompanist. In 1933 he moved to Birminghan to become Midland Regional Director of Music for the BBC, where he formed and conducted the Midland Studio Orchestra. In 1934, he left the BBC to become Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. He became a D.Mus from Oxford University in 1941.
In 1944, he returned to the BBC to become overall Director of Music, succeeding Arthur Bliss.
He died on 11 March 1947 from pneumonia at the premature age of 45.
​
His best known compositions are the Carol Symphony and the humorous song-setting The Owl and the Pussycat.
Composer biography adapted from his Wikipedia entry
Our Recording Project
Whilst working upon our recording of The Complete Songs of A. A. Milne (and Lewis Carroll) by Harold Fraser-Simson we were discussing what might be a suitable follow up. Hely-Hutchinson came up because of the link between the well known children's song The Owl and the Pussycat so we did a bit of investigating and research on the other works by him and how many of them were recorded.
​
Our efforts brought to light approximately one-hundred songs, settings of a wide variety of poets, ranging from the sublime Dream Song (a setting of Walter de la Mare) to the sublimely ridiculous Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (settings of the comedy poetry of Harry Graham). The more songs we found the sheet music for the more enamoured we became with Hely-Hutchinson's music - it also became very apparent that only about a third of the works had been recorded and were still available.
​
The combination of our enjoyment of his music and the lack of recordings made the decision for us - this was a perfect choice for a project for us. Our research has continued and we now have the sheet music for all of Hely-Hutchinson's published songs that we know exist (details below).
​
At this point we don't know if this will be a series of releases or in one album - we're currently investigating the lengths of all of the songs to see what arrangement would suit better.
The Songs
Five Folly Songs (words Anon.)
I. A Dirge
II. The Lion and the Unicorn
III. Alexander's Song
IV. Aristotles' Story
V. Robin and Richard
​
Songs from "The Bad Child's Book of Beasts" (words by Hillaire Belloc)
I. The Yak
II. The Lion
III. The Tiger
IV. The Whale
V. The Hippopotamus
VI. The Dodo
VII. The Big Baboon
VIII. The Frog
​
The Echoing Green and Other Songs (words by William Blake)
I. The Echoing Green
II. The Shepherd
III. Laughing Song
IV. Holy Thursday
V. The Blossom
VI. Cradle Song
​
Five Songs of Innocence (words by William Blake)
I. Piping Down the Valleys
II. The Lamb
III. Infant Joy
IV. Spring
V. The Little Boy Lost
​
​
Alice Songs (words by Lewis Carroll)
I. Jabberwocky
II. Father William
III. Tweedledum and Tweedledee
IV. Humpty Dumpty
V. To The Looking-Glass World
VI. Beautiful Soup
​
Settings of G. K. Chesterton
Castlepatrick
The Rolling English Road
Who Gomes Home?
​
Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (words by Harry Graham)
I. The Stern Parent
II. Nurse's Mistake
III. Jim; or, The Deferred Luncheon Party
IV. The Englishman's Home
V. Scorching John
VI. Unselfishness
VII. Equanimity
VII. Necessity
VIII. Tenderheartedness
X. Obstruction
XI. Aunt
XII. Mr. Jones
XIII. Misfortunes Never Come Singly
XIV. La Course Interrompue
XV. Philip
XVI. Aunt Eliza
XVII. Inconsiderate Hannah
XVIII. The Perils of Obesity
XIX. Inconvenience
XX. Uncle Joe
XXI. The Children's Don't
More Ruthless Rhymes (words by Harry Graham)
I. Indifference
II. Lord Gorbals
III. Compensation
IV. Providence
V. Winter Sports
VI. Consolation
VII. Opportunity
VIII. Obstinacy
IX. The Last Straw
X. Carelessness
XI. Uplift
XII. Tragedy
XIII. L'enfant Glace
XIV. London Calling
XV. Grandpapa
XVI. Quiet Fun
XVII. Bishop Prout
XVIII. Discipline (formerly Black and Tan)*
XIX. Canon Gloy
XX. Patience
​
*Whilst all of the Ruthless Rhymes very much represent a sense of humour from a different era, the one originally entitled Black and Tan these days is extremely offensive. We didn't want to record everything and skip just one song. Luckily Hely-Hutchinson did not set all of the poetry in Harry Graham's More Ruthless Rhymes and upon investigation we found that another one of the poems fitted very well, with no alteration to the music, and therefore have chosen to replace the words with these so that we can record the entire cycle of songs.
​
Settings of Rudyard Kipling
Cities and Thrones and Powers
Cuckoo Song
The Queen's Men
​
Three Nonsense Songs (words by Edward Lear)
I. The Owl and the Pussycat
II. The Table and the Chair
III. The Duck and the Kangaroo
​
Three Songs from "Peacock Pie" (words by Walter de la Mare)
I. The Little Old Cupid
II. The Cupboard
III. The Window
​
Other settings of Walter de la Mare
The Bees' Song
Dream Song
The Huntsmen
The Old Soldier
Silver
The Song of Soldiers
Trees
​
A Song Cycle from "The Follies" (part of A Child's Thoughts)
Gwennie
Dan Everard
Our Scene-Painting Brother
Ben
Morton and Bert
​
Other Songs
Adam Lay i-Bounden (traditional)
Bravo (Frederick E. Weatherley)
Christmas Everywhere: A Christmas Carol for those at Sea (Natalie Hely-Hutchinson)
Dreamland (Christina Rossetti)
Old Mother Hubbard (traditional)
The Twa Corbies (anon)
The Jolly Beggar (traditional)
The Hidden Things (W. Beaumont)
​
​