As well as being a conductor, Harty was a composer, and Nicholls was the debut soloist in one of his compositions, Ode to a Nightingale, which was heard at the 1907 Cardiff Festival.
This more romantic view of death was not uncommon in writing, as in John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", which may have inspired Poe.
Florence Nightingale | A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (song) | A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square | Ode to Joy | Mark Nightingale | Ode | ode | Ode to Billie Joe | Ode to a Nightingale | Ode: Sung on the Occasion of Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead at Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C., 1867 | Nightingale | Benedict Nightingale | Annie Nightingale | Ode to Joy (from Beethoven's 9th) | Ode (poem) | ODE | Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery | Florence Nightingale Medal | Erik Ode | ''The lady with the lamp'' — Miss Nightingale at Selimiye Barracks | Shroud for a Nightingale | Ogboju ode ninu igbo olodumare | Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀ | Ode to the West Wind | Ode to the Ghetto | Ode to the Confederate Dead | Ode to Psyche | Ode on a Grecian Urn | Nightingale baronets | nightingale |
He may have written the ode as early as March, but the themes and stanza forms suggest May or June 1819; when it is known he was working on "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Melancholy", "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode to Psyche".
Hertfordshire Chorus is renowned for its innovative programming, frequently involving commissions such as "Mass in Blue" and "Ode to a Nightingale" by Will Todd, "Ice" by Orlando Gough and "Solaris" by Steve Block.