In the early 1990's Wilfred Heaton composed a poignant little Berceuse  for his grand daughter Emma to play on the clarinet. The melody and simple piano accompaniment are set out on two staves and followed by a few sketches for variations based on it, but he never got further than this theme. It is inscribed "In Memoriam Charlotte". She was Emma Stobart's sister who tragically passed away in her teens.
I have already used the tune as a basis for a Christmas choral song - Balulalow - and have now transcribed the accompaniment for strings. 
It is so short, I thought I would add another gorgeous Heaton tune from his incidental music to the Pilgrim's Progress (brass band). The other two vignettes come from incidental music composed for Little Theatre productions in Sheffield from the immediate post war years. These were written for recorder. I have harmonised the second one, thinking that Heaton would most likely have improvised a piano accompaniment. It works well unaccompanied.

Four Vignettes: Prelude, On the delectable Mountains, Slow Dance, Berceuse Elegiaque

Heaton - Four Vignettes  for clarinet and Strings (arr. Hindmarsh)

An arrangement of the Welsh folk song, Ar Lan Y Môr, Performed by the Tredegar Town Band, conducted by Ian Porthouse, at the 2022 BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall. For score and parts email gavinhigginscomposer@gmail.com

Ar Lan Y Môr

Ar lan y môr

Wilfred Heaton was a fine pianist – accomplished enough to have been a professional had he wishes. His sister Hilda was good enough to be the accompanist for the Sheffield Park Songsters (choir) in her late teens and early 20s before training as an SA officer. Wilfred and Hilda used to play piano duets – arrangements of SA music as well as classical items. Wilfred always took the bottom part and Hilda the top, with Wilfred adding in the passages Hilda could not manage.  It's likely that he made the arrangements of Three West Indian Melodies for them to play, but Hilda could not remember ever playing them when we spoke early in the 2000s. 

I've been able to recognise the first tune, 'I've touched by finger on the golden pen', but cannot identify the two others, although they are familiar from my SA Sunday School days. Can anyone help? I'd love to attach the appropriate text in my forthcoming book. Do get in touch if you recognise them.

The image is of Wilfred and Hilda in the summer of 1948

Three West Indian Melodies

Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett was conceived a decade ago as a centenary tribute for the great English composer. The theme I chose for this collective tribute features wind and brass and comes from Tippett's opera The Midsummer Marriage, where it marks the entry of The Ancients. The brief for the five composers was to bring their own creative perspectives to the little theme, with its characteristic rhythms and embellishments.  Bramwell Tovey has composed a bright, vivacious opening dance.  We hear Edward Gregson in lyrical mode. Michael Ball provides a brief moment of light, airy activity. Elgar Howarth, typically, looks to a wider dimension and juxtaposes a slowed down theme with fleeting glimpses of another Tippett opera, King Priam. Philip Wilby rounds the tribute off with a spectacular fugue, embracing an elaborated reprise of the theme and also birthday greetings to Gregson and Howarth. Foden's Band and Bramwell Tovey gave the first performance at the 2005 RNCM Festival of Brass.
This fine performance was recorded at the 2015 RNCM Festival of Brass
Score and Parts available from PHM Publishing www.paulhindmarsh.com / World of Brass / Just Music

Tippett Variations

In 1947 Wilfred Heaton enrolled at the Sheffield Educational Settlement for a course in the history of European art under the auspices of the Workers' Education Association. The course was run by the Settlement's warden Arnold Freeman, who ran the it according to the principles espoused by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Wilfred became closely involved with the settlement and also the Steiner's Spiritual Science, which governed the course of the rest of his life. 
    Freeman produced plays each year at the Settlement's Little Theatre. Between 1949 and 1952 Wilfred provided the music for a number of them. The Christmas production in 1949 was WB Yeats' play King's Threshold, for which Wilfred provided a  folk-like melody.
    It's a simple tune, eminently suitable as a seasonal carol; so, I offer this little arrangement as a centenary gift for Wilfred, whose music I have admired since childhood and have been honoured and privileged to work on since since he died in 2000. I have harmonised Wilfred's tune imagining it sung by carollers in the pubs around Sheffield, who still sing this traditional carol telling the story of the Shepherds' visit to the infant Jesus.

As Wilfred's manuscript is lodged in the University Library at Sheffield - part of the Settlement's archive - this premiere performance sung by the students of the University's Chamber Choir on 28 November could not be more appropriate. My thanks to them for agreeing to perform it in their end of term concert. 
    My unbounded gratitude also goes to son-in-law Bryan Stobart and the Heaton family for inviting me to fulfil to the best of my ability Wilfred's wishes for his musical legacy. It has been an honour.  

The music is available for purchase from PHM Publishing, www.paulhindmarsh.com

Heaton (arr. PH) A Shepherds' Carol

I was the MD of Besses o' th' Barn Band between 1990 and 1993. Looking back after so long, I regard that time at the helm of Besses as a privilege. When I started I was so inexperienced at conducting bands.  I'd led some choral and orchestral performances but the only brass bands i knew were the ones I had played in as a lad. Banding was a 'secret passion' then - I was producing at the BBC  - but through my contact with Besses it became very visible and I owe the band a great deal for allowing me to learn about banding with them.
I also began to arrange a few things at that time and this lovely extract from a Walton film score, Next of Kin (1941) was my very first stab at a brass band transcription. This is a recording from BBC Radio 2 Listen to the Band from 1991. Hope you enjoy it.

Walton (arr. PH)- Romance from Next of Kin  (Besses, LTTB, 1991)

This is the first movement of the Vaughan Williams tuba concerto played on a historic Barlow F tuba. James Gourlay (tuba) Leeds University Orchestra. This instrument is now in the Reid collection at Edinburgh University

Historical Performance

Tuba Concerto in F Minor 1st Movement

Yorkshire composer and conductor Wilfred Heaton (1918 - 2000) is best known in the brass band world for a quintet of major works ( including Contest Music, Partita and Variations) and a series of items composed for The Salvation Army. His march Praise, composed when he was 18, is regarded as a classic of its kind. In the 1950s Heaton composed two works for orchestra and two for his instrument, the piano. One was a 30 minute Sonata based on some of the same material as Partita. The other was this suite of three short piano pieces. Composed in 1954, they received their one and only performance at a recital given by James Gibb, promoted by the Society for the Promotion of New Music in London.
These miniatures reveal Heaton at his most adventurous in style. The influence of Bartok is evident in the first and third, while the bi-tonally organised middle piece is the most personal. This audio realisation presents the notes if not the subtleties of this virtuoso studies. They were among the last works he composed before largely giving up composition for close on 20 years.
I'd love to hear them played once concerts have restarted.Anyone interested? Please get in touch via paulhindmarsh.com

Wilfred Heaton - THREE PIECES for piano Op. 2 (1954)

I work as a freelance music consultant, writing about, editing and producing (audio, digital and print)  classical, contemporary classical and band music. Through PHM Publishing and Production I am making available a range of  band, orchestral and vocal music. Much of this I have edited or realised myself, but I am particularly proud to be able to publish hitherto unknown music by the innovative brass composer of the 20th century, Wilfred Heaton, audio files and performances of whose music feature here.

Heaton - Four Vignettes for clarinet and Strings (arr. Hindmarsh)

Paul Hindmarsh Music

Related tracks