Last modified on Sat 1 May 2021 04.46 EDT
The composer Elaine Hugh-Jones, who has died aged 93, made a striking contribution to English song. In her survey New Vocal Repertory (vol 1, 1986), the soprano Jane Manning wrote of the pleasure of discovering a composer with a complete mastery of voice and piano writing: “Although they are firmly based on a traditional musical style – that of English post-Romantic – the songs are not in the least derivative [but show] a wonderful assurance and freshness of approach and an exceptionally sensitive response to words.”
The works in question were six settings of poems by Walter de la Mare, written between 1966 and 1985. Two more, from 1988-89, went on to make a set of eight, and they have been broadcast several times on BBC Radio 3.
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Elaine Hugh-Jones: started writing each song by experimenting at the piano with random notes and musical fragments
Elaine Hugh-Jones, who has died aged 93, was a pianist and composer known for her powerful yet sensitive and tuneful songs; she was also a stalwart of BBC radio and television, working as official accompanist on countless programmes from the postwar years until 1983.
Of her several song cycles the best known are the seven Walter de la Mare Songs, written between 1966 and 1988, which blend the French influence of Gabriel Fauré with the English romanticism she inherited from her teacher Lennox Berkeley. The cycle was broadcast several times on Radio 3 and was followed by several more including the powerful Songs of War, settings of Wilfred Owen’s poetry, and arrangements of verses by Frances Cornford and Gerard Manley Hopkins.