Herbert Hughes (16 May 1882 – 1 May 1937) was an Irish composer, music critic and a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs. He was the father of Spike Hughes.Hughes was born and brought up in Belfast, Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the Royal College of Music, London, where he studied with Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Wood, graduating in 1901. Subsequently, he worked as a music critic, notably for The Daily Telegraph from 1911 to 1932.
Described as having an "ardent and self-confident manner", Hughes is first heard of in an Irish musical capacity (beyond being honorary organist at St Peter's Church on Antrim Road at the age of fourteen) collecting traditional airs and transcribing folksongs in North Donegal in August 1903 with his brother Fred, F.J. Bigger, and John Campbell. Dedicated to seeking out and recording such ancient melodies as were yet to be found in the more remote glens and valleys of Ulster, he produced Songs of Uladh (1904) with Joseph Campbell, illustrated by his brother John and paid for by Bigger. Throughout his career, he collected and arranged hundreds of traditional melodies and published many of them in his own unique arrangements.

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