Arthur Hutchings
  Professor of Music - Durham & Exeter Universities - an appreciation of his life and work

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Hutchings was born in Sunbury on Thames although he was to later declare “I come from Devon”, a reference to having spent a good deal of his boyhood near Bideford where the Hutchings grandparents lived. His father William, a schoolmaster,  married Annie Bramwell in 1903. The family settled in Mortlake, London. In his formative years Hutchings sang in a church choir, studied piano, organ and violin and sought tuition in harmony and counterpoint; as an impecunious student he was grateful to those teachers who expected no fee. In 1928 Arthur enrolled in London University studying History, graduating BA in 1931. During the 1940s he was awarded BMus and PhD Dunelm degrees, the doctoral thesis formed the basis of his acclaimed 1948 book “A Companion to Mozart’s Piano Concertos”  

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  In 1929 Hutchings was appointed as the first organist at All Saints Church, East Sheen, near the family home. All Saints stands in the liberal Anglo-Catholic tradition to which Hutchings remained faithful through life.  He became a student at the St Mark-St John College for intending teachers which established itself in Chelsea from 1923. In London circles he formed friendships and acquaintance with prominent and influential people such as Constant Lambert, Cecil Gray, Sorabji, and especially with composer Edmund Rubbra who dedicated his Third Symphony to Hutchings.

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  One of Arthur’s teachers was Harvey Grace (1874-1944) a musician of distinction, organist at several London churches, editor of ‘The Musical Times’ 1918-1944, organist of Chichester Cathedral 1931-1938, author, composer, and from 1935 Governing Board member and a professor of Trinity College of Music in London. In his 'Invention and Composition of Music' book (pages 142-146) Hutchings reconstructs from memory a lesson when Grace gave advice on improving an organ improvisation: essentially the precepts were applicable to "the composition of all short pieces generally".  Arthur also later served as an examiner and member of the Trinity College Board.

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  The young Hutchings immersed himself in music history, began writing articles and reviews for professional journals such as ‘Musical Times’, at the encouragement of his mentor. One of his first articles, on the merits of Sigfrid Karg Elert's organ works, was published at age 22 in 1928, already manifesting his considered critical views and the unmistakable tone of his literary style. He was also much indebted to Cyril Rootham (1875-1938) composer, tutor at St John's College, Cambridge and at RCM  who in the last year of his life offered guidance in orchestration. In 1975 Hutchings gave a BBC talk about him (see Documents and Audio)

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  Charles Kennedy Scott (1876-1965) was an organist, musical director, composer, writer and teacher who had studied at the Brussels Conservatoire. He founded the Oriana Madrigal Society in 1904 and the Philharmonic Choir in 1919, was elected fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1916 and taught at Trinity College of Music between 1929 and 1965. Whilst working for Trinity he conducted the college choir, was a member of the corporation and board, and examined for the college. It was to the Oriana choir, of which Hutchings was a member, that Delius dedicated his six voice wordless choral piece ‘To be sung of a summer night on the water’ [1917], premiered in London 1920. Love of this composer’s music stayed with him all his life, inspiring his book ‘Delius – A Critical Biography’ [1948 "dedicated to Charles Kennedy Scott"] and also a number of associated articles for journals such as that of the Delius Society. 

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  One day in 1928 on a cycling holiday in France with organist and composer Alec Rowley the pair called on Delius at Grez-sur-Loing. The visit was not well timed, for the composer had been disturbed from his rest by noisy motor bikes in the village. The following year Hutchings saw the composer again when he came to London for Thomas Beecham's Delius Festival. The French trip also took in Paris and an opportunity to sit in the organ loft at St Sulpice when Widor played the High Mass. During the 1962 Delius Centenary Year Hutchings gave an evening talk to the Durham faculty on aspects of the composer and his music – he recalled the visit as his talk opened​