Christian Victor Hely-Hutchinson was a British composer, conductor, pianist and music administrator. He is best known for the Carol Symphony and for humorous song-settings.
He joined the BBC at Savoy Hill in 1926, becoming a conductor, pianist, and accompanist. He moved to Hampstead, where his two sons were born. In 1933, he moved to Birmingham 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, taking over from Sir Granville Bantock. In 1938, he saw signs of war, and moved his family out of Birmingham to a nearby village. During the war he became an ARP warden. He became a D.Mus from Oxford University in 1941. He also joined the university's officer cadet force. In 1944, he returned to the BBC to become overall Director of Music, succeeding Arthur Bliss. He moved to St John's Wood. He never purchased a car, always using his bicycle. The winter of 1947 was very long-lasting and to save fuel, Hely-Hutchinson refused to switch on the radiators in his office. He developed a cold, which became pneumonia. He died on 11 March 1947 at the premature age of 45. His wife Marjorie died in 1988. Astra Desmond sang at his memorial service.
Works
Although mostly forgotten now, Hely-Hutchinson's orchestral music enjoyed some popularity during his lifetime, including the Overture to a Pantomime, and the substantial Variations, Intermezzo and Finale, premiered at the Proms in 1927. The Young Idea, a lighter, jazz-influenced rhapsody for piano and orchestra, was also played at the Proms in 1930 and was recorded in 2008 with the BBC Concert Orchestra and David Owen Norris as soloist.. A Symphony for short orchestra, using music reworked from some of his film scores, was heard posthumously at the Proms in 1947. By far his best known work is the Carol Symphony written in 1929. The four movements - really chorale preludes rather than symphonic movements - are based on the traditional English Christmas carols:
The third movement was used for the title music of the 1943 Children's Hour and 1984 BBC children's television adaptation of John Masefield's The Box of Delights, in particular the variation on the theme of The First Nowell. He remains well known for his settings of various nursery rhymes and children's poems. His setting of "Old Mother Hubbard" is arranged in the manner of Handel. His song setting of Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" was notably recorded in 1955 by Elton Hayes and featured regularly on the BBC's Children's Favourites radio show.
