Edward Norman Hay

Edward Norman Hay (1889-1943) was a composer and musicologist.

He was born at 26 Newton Road, Faversham, Kent on April 19, 1889, the second son of Joseph Hay, an Inland Revenue Official, son of Edward Hay, coachmaker and Margaret Taylor; and Janet Robb (1864-1891), the only daughter of Andrew Robb (1825-1900), a mill manager from Alloa, Scotland and his wife Mary Bennie Swanson. His parents had married in Edinburgh in 1884, and their first son Francis Edward Cecil Hay died in Peebles in 1885. Joseph and Janet moved to Faversham shortly afterwards. His mother Janet died aged only 26 in January 1891, and Edward moved across to Coleraine in Ireland shortly afterwards to be cared for by aunts, although he is recorded as being in the Cottage Hospital in Faversham in the 1891 census. When young he contracted polio, which left him with a permanent limp, and apparently unable to walk until the age of 12. According to his own account he first studied the violin at the age of eight, but around the age of ten 'I was suddenly filled with a longing to play a keyboard instrument...and I took a vow one evening not to sleep until I had learnt the notes of the bass staff'. He went on to take piano lessons and 'during my five years with her (the teacher) I proceeded from Clementi and Dussek to the easier Beethoven, with not one trashy piece in between. And I think the finest thing she ever did was to leave Bach alone'.

Dr. Hay became a classical composer and was also organist at Belfast Cathedral and Belmont Presbyterian Church, Belfast. He took a Doctorate in Music at Bailliol College, Oxford and later became a fellow of the Royal College of Organists. In 1922-3 he served as Head of Music at Campbell College, Belfast, and for some time served as the music critic, (Rathcol), to the Belfast Telegraph. He married a Coleraine girl Hessie Haughey in c1925, and had two sons Michael (1927-2004) and Norman Hay.

He died in September 1943. his obituary in The Times (London) (13/9/1943) records that he 'won the Carnegie Award for a String Quartet in 1918, and from 1923 to 1924 was external examiner for degrees in music at Dublin University. After working for the BBC for a time he was appointed in 1941 Lecturer on Music, Queen's University, Belfast'. It continued ' Dr Hay's chief work was 'Paean', performed in 1932 at Worcester at the Three Choir's Festival. Notable orchestral works by him are the symphonic poem 'Dunluse' and an 'Irish Rhapsody".

His work was recently performed at Ulster Hall in 2002, and his wife was there to hear it.

Compositions

He composed several classical pieces including:

*The Silent Land, song for Contralto with cello accompaniment(1905)
*Vesper Hymn. Words translated from the German of Herbert (1912)
*A birthday, part song for ladies chorus, words by C.Rossetti (1918)
*String Quartet in A Major for two violins, viola and cello (1920)
*The wind among the reeds -based on a poem by Yeats (Cantana 1921)
*Shed no tear, Part song for four voices, word by Keats(1923)
*To wonder, tone poem for solo voices (1924)
*Paean, words G.Herbert. For mezzo soprano or contralto,solo,chorus and orchestra (1931)
*Churnin' day -song - words by E.Shane (1936)
*An intercessional hymn. Words by Rev.R.Hall (1939)
*The Buttermilk Boy - Ulster Folk song - melody and words. (1939)
*Tryste Noel, sacred song, words by L.I. Guiney (1940)

The above were published by Stainer and Bell, J.Curwen and Sons, Novello and Co. and Weekes and Co.

Further reading

*Entry in Groves New Dictionary of Music and Musicians by Barry Burgess
*The Folk Music of Ireland - Its past present and future, by A.W.Patterson (1920)