Hugh the Drover was Vaughan Williams’ 1924 attempt “to set a prizefight to music”. ‘Hugh’s Song of the Road’ is a first-act 4-minute aria for tenor, which introduces the passionate eponymous herdsman of the opera. A buoyant and vivacious instance of Vaughan Williams’ brilliance in song, ‘Hugh’s Song of the Road’ describes the excitements and foibles of life on the open road, to a bubbling piano accompaniment.