Havelock Nelson joined the BBC in
Belfast in 1947 having been
educated at TrinityCollegeDublin and the RoyalIrishAcademy of Music. He conducted
the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra, the Studio
Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Singers. His
compositions were legion and included orchestral works, a ballet, a choral
suite and many partsongs, anthems and (particularly)
unison songs, song cycles and other solo songs (like Dirty Work and Love is
Cruel). He also composed piano pieces,
including the Three Irish Diversions, instrumental works like the Cameos for
clarinet solo, incidental music for films and radio and TV plays, and many
arrangements of Irish and other folksongs. Among the more popular of his
published miniatures are popular nursery rhymes in the styles of Mendelssohn
and Rossini.