Article - Rare Gems: Robert Hughes on the Road to a Symphony

This article was written for University of Melbourne’s Context: Journal of Music Research.

Australian composer Robert Hughes (1912–2007) is widely known for his orchestral works, film and television music, as well as an opera and a few choral works. Much of Hughes’s significant output was linked to his position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), also known as the Victorian Symphony Orchestra (VSO) during the 1950s and early 1960s. In this role, Hughes was employed as a music arranger and editor with the orchestra under the umbrella of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and a significant proportion of his work involved arranging major symphonic works for performance by smaller ensembles. An example of such a project occurred when Hughes was asked to arrange Mahler symphonies especially for the purpose of the orchestra’s tours to regional Australia. Through this activity, Hughes was able to fine-tune his skills as an orchestrator and incorporate this expertise into his compositions.

Hughes belongs to a generation of Australian composers whose work has been neglected, primarily because their music has not been published and only exists in manuscript form. Orchestras today prefer printed scores and parts, and consequently much of the music from this era remains in the archives, unused. As part of my project to rediscover these ‘hidden treasures,’ I explored the archives of Hughes’s music and discovered some elegant works which had been untouched since their first performances.