Book excerpt: First Published in 1996. William and Philip Hayes, father and son, between them occupied the Heather Chair of Music at the University of Oxford for over half a century (1741-97). Although they lived and worked largely outside the mainstream of London's cosmopolitan musical life, their outlook was surprisingly broad. The present study reveals them to have been two of the most important provincial musicians of their age, who as composers contributed to all the main genres of the time except opera.