Pennsylvania native Hugh M. Stuart (1917-2006) had a varied career in music education, serving as teacher, composer, clinician, and more over more than three decades. His studies took him to Oberlin, Columbia Teachers College, Rutgers, Newark State, and the University of Michigan. His career spanned teaching positions in New Jersey and Maryland with clinic work in all but five US states. His compositions span a variety of primarily educational media, including band. He retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he passed away at age 89.
Three Ayres from Gloucester (1969) is perhaps Stuart’s most enduring work. Its three short movements, totaling only five minutes, are written in the style of English folk songs, particularly from the Gloucester area, as detailed in the score’s program note:
A three-movement suite written in the early English folksong style, this piece came into being as a result of the composer’s fascination with an old 10th century couplet:
“There’s no one quite so comely
As the Jolly Earl of Cholmondeley.”The resulting three compositions, The Jolly Earl of Cholmondeley [pronounced “Chumley”], Ayre for Eventide and The Fiefs of Wembley, are in early English folk song style and are designed to capture the mood of the peasants and their life on the fiefs of Wembley castle.
An accomplished middle school band plays Three Ayres:
It also exists in a flex band version:
Look for further information at J. W. Pepper, the Wind Repertory Project, and this unit study.
Stuart did not document any of use any actual folk melodies as inspiration for Three Ayres. To see the style he might have had in mind, we can turn to the modern-day British Folk Festival, held in Gloucestershire: