Robert Hughes

Clarinet Bass Clarinet 2 Trumpets in Percussion (1 player - Bass Drum, Snare Drum, 2 Timpani (Ab-Eb), Triangle, Tambourine) Piano Classical Guitar Double Bass

Music for a play by Jean Anouilh.

Bob Hughes conducted various new music chamber groups for the University of Buffalo’s Music Department and was often called on to compose music for plays put on by the Department of Drama and Speech. From 1953 to 1958 he wrote Incidental Music for Aria da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay; Six Characters in Search of an Author  by Luigi Pirandello; and The Second Shepherd’s Play, a Medieval Drama. These scores are now lost. Incidental Music for Waltz of the Toreadors, however, survived. It was one of the composer’s last compositions before leaving for Europe to study dodecaphonic music with Luigi Dallapiccola. It showcases the composer’s flair for melody and his talent for creating “sticky tunes” that are difficult to get out of mind.

The occasion was the University’s production of Jean Anouilh’s play from 1951. Its Broadway run in New York directed by Harold Clurman in 1957 and 1958 was wildly successful, receiving five Tony Award nominations and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

Music for the University production was conducted by the composer, and played by James Pyne and Samuel Costello, clarinets; Frank Collura and Clifford Shisler, trumpets; Angelo Di Mino, percussion; Leonard Banaszak, guitar; Daniel Palazzo, double bass; and Donald Shrimpton, piano.

When he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to study with Lou Harrison he returned to melodic invention. He revised Aria da Capo and composed Incidental Music for Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett for the Sticky Wicket summer drama series in Aptos, CA. His Incidental Music for The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams accompanied an Oakland CA production. He went on to write many works for ballet, modern dance, performance art, film and video.

Margaret Fisher 2026