During 1942 John Crossley Hayes wrote two beautiful pieces of light classical music: the Suite Guernesiaise and Aubade et Serenade. These are his main works.
The Suite Guernesiaise is a happy, exuberant, tuneful work in four movements which reflects my father’s love of Guernsey rather than the privations of war. Although Guernsey had been occupied by the Germans since 1940, in 1942 life was still fairly normal, at least from the perspective of a small child. Perhaps this music could not have been written any later. By 1944 no one thought of anything but survival. But in the meantime Guernsey was such a beautiful, romantic place. I think the crashing chords my father used to bash out on the piano while composing the Suite were inspired by the often turbulent seas off Jerbourg, where we had a house before it was commandeered by the Germans. Other parts of the Suite were composed on his flute while sitting on the stairs.
The Suite Guernesiaise and his other music were so much a part of my childhood that I missed it when it disappeared from view after the war. My father never spoke about it, and after his death in 2003 I found it at the bottom of a dusty cupboard in his room. This was an indescribable moment for me. The slim green volumes had been mouldering away there for years, and as I lifted them up I could feel a change taking place which was transcendental in its way, beyond anything personal to me. The music was entering a new stage, being reborn, as I knew I had to bring it to life again and get it played orchestrally, as he had never heard it played while he was alive. The scores were pencilled straight onto the page, in exquisite script, and inked with never a mistake or a crossing out anywhere. I am thrilled that it is at last being premiered by the Guernsey Camerata, in Guernsey, where it belongs.
The Aubade et Serenade is shorter, simpler and easier to play than the Suite. It is a tuneful light music which lifts the mood and which manages to be romantic as well as cheerful. Together the two halves of this piece take about 11 minutes to play and it is now ready to be premiered in its turn.
The Suite and the Aubade et Serenade were not his first works. His nephew, John Kershaw, wrote to me in 2007 about a performance which took place most probably in 1938: “I can remember a rather grand family occasion at Lymefield in the front room when all had assembled to hear a broadcast of a piece composed by your father… I imagine somewhere there must be a library with copies of all Radio Times printed and a long search through these should find a reference to this piece. The likelihood is that it was broadcast in the afternoon or early evening because we never stayed overnight at Lymefield and bedtimes in those days were totally inflexible. I very much regret that I cannot be more helpful with the date when it was performed.” He later told me that the most likely time of this broadcast would have been a Sunday afternoon.
I have a few unpublished works in my possession. There is a Dirge, dated Easter 1936, which sets to music some famous lines from Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach and a lyric by Shelley, both of which reflect the gathering storm clouds of war. This would take about 12 minutes to play and would require orchestra and chorus. There is another song “He who died today…” dated 1937 and lasting 9 minutes.
In addition to these there is a piece of violin and piano music composed for John Kershaw’s tenth birthday in 1938 - the boy was learning the violin - of which the piano part has gone missing. It is not certain whether this was an original composition or whether it was another piece of music rendered more easy for a child to play. I have not heard any of this unpublished music.
My special thanks are due to David and Jane Fanshawe for their unstinting and imaginative help and encouragement, and to Gordon Nelson for giving of his time and patience, and for helping it all to happen in the first place.
Ildiko Hayes September 2009
Where next?
We would very much like to have a professional studio recording made of the Suite Guernesiaise and Aubade et Serenade, but it would cost around £10,000 to do this, maybe more, and we lack the funds. If anyone reading this would be interested in financing such a recording, or in contributing to a JCH Recording Fund, please contact us. We would be very pleased to hear from you.