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Winter 2021 18 18 P A N P I P E S by Hollis Thoms J ohn Liptrot Hatton (1809-1886) was music director for the theatrical productions of two of the most famous Shakespearean actors/producers of the 19 th century: William Charles Macready (1793-1873) and Charles John Kean (1811-1868). During Hatton's lifetime, he was also a well-known solo pianist, touring accompanist, arranger of folk songs, and prolific composer of songs, glees, and orchestral incidental music for landmark Shakespeare productions. Now his music is all but forgotten, except for an occasional performance of some of his songs and glees. However, my recent research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC into his orchestral incidental music for Shakespeare's plays, produced by Charles John Kean, has uncovered some significant music, particularly his Macbeth (W. b. 568), and e Merchant of Venice (W. b. 572) music from 1858. Hatton's music needs to be heard once again. e World Cat indicates that there are 1,432 of his works in 2,021 publications in two languages and 3,040 library holdings. Most widely held are his Songs of England (69 editions published between 1879 and 1917 in three languages and held by 295 World Cat libraries worldwide), e Songs of Ireland (35 editions published between 1873 and 1974 in three languages and held by 138 World Cat libraries worldwide), and his song Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye (26 editions published between 1851 and 1874 in English and held by 65 World Cat libraries worldwide). Hatton's solo song Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye is referred to by James Joyce in his novel Ulysses, Chapter 11, "Sirens," when Leopold Bloom and Blazes Boylan happen to arrive at the same pub, where Hatton's song is being sung. Boylan is secretly off to see Bloom's wife, Molly, and Bloom knows, it, so as Boylan leaves the pub and Bloom watches him leave, this sentimental song is being sung. Boylan leaves the pub to see Molly, and this song's "goodbye" might be Bloom's goodbye to Molly. Joyce uses fragments from lines of the song at intervals as the action unfolds. He does not identify the composer or the title of the song, suggesting that the listener would have been familiar with Hatton's piece. Its fragmented singing contributes to the overall melancholy mood of the episode between Bloom, Molly, and Boylan. Another of Hatton's songs, When Evening's Twilight, is still performed today and can be heard in numerous YouTube renditions. Folger Shakespeare Library Manuscripts Hidden for 100 years in the Folger Shakespeare Library have been a number of Hatton's musical scores for Macbeth, e Merchant of Venice, Henry VIII, King John, Richard II, Hamlet, e Winter's Tale, and Tempest. I first became interested in delving more deeply into his music aer looking at the overture to Macbeth. Lasting fieen minutes, the movement is scored for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoon, horns, trumpets, trombones, strings, timpani, and harp; it is a large-sonata allegro movement of 481 measures, with a slower introduction, then a quicker main movement, and is quite complex and ambitious. He composed the music on full score landscaped pages so that each page has all the instruments in the same position from page to page. e notational script was neatly done, suggesting it was a near fair copy. He used some composer short-hand when writing out the parts when instruments were doubled or measures repeated. e score was undoubtedly his conducting score and so some short-hand notation was adequate since he was conducting. e score was very neat and easy to read. In order to transcribe the movement so that I could hear the music more completely, I made copies from the microfilm of the score, took it home, and began transcribing each note of the manuscript to FINALE. As I began to listen to the transcription, I found that his style was definitely influenced by Felix Mendelssohn's works, though Hatton had his own distinct voice. What kept me focused and moving forward during the tedious transcription process was the curious anticipation to see what interesting musical ideas he would come up with next, and there were many surprises. His use of woodwinds and strings were quite advanced. e brass, timpani, and harp mostly assumed subordinate roles, helping to punctuate, support, and highlight the many musical ideas in the woodwinds and strings. His overall musical structure and harmonic progressions were always clearly, yet inventively, drawn. He seemed to move intuitively through a logical musical framework. Once I finished with the overture, I proceeded to do the remaining three act- ending pieces, becoming convinced that I should transcribe more of his music. While the music to Macbeth drew its inspiration from Mendelssohn-style symphonic influences, and sometimes Scottish bagpipe and strathspey motives, the overture for e Merchant of Venice was based on a four-section Italian song form and sought to capture the Italian spirit. I lived in Scotland for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship and visited Venice on one of our vacations; hearing Hatton's music for both plays vividly brought back landscapes and scenes from both of those trips. I was able to look at his "developing" manuscript score for Henry VIII at the Folger and compare it to a published vocal/piano score that the Library of Congress (LOC) had, since the libraries are just a few blocks apart. Both were kind enough to let me look at the scores simultaneously, the Folger bringing over the Henry VIII manuscript to the Library of Congress for me to compare with the published score owned by the LOC. While Shakespeare's Henry VIII is now rarely performed, the 19 th - century Kean productions were immensely popular, and there were 100 performances, making it possible for Hatton to publish his incidental music for the play. It is Hatton's only incidental music for a Shakespeare play that was ever published. British Library Manuscript (MS 37046) I continued to search for other sources for Hatton manuscripts and found that the British Library Catalogue listed a few. I contacted COMPOSERS John Liptrot Hatton and the Plays of William Shakespeare

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