Hatton became a foremost exponent of the writing of glees and part songs, both through his love of English madrigals, and through the influences he derived from German music. His connection with Oliphant had given him an immediate path of information and study. A visit to England of the Cologne Choir is thought to have given new impetus to the glee movement in England, and Hatton was in the vanguard. Their harmonised melodies, German part-songs by Mendelssohn and others, were called glees in imitation of the English glees, and attracted a great deal of interest. Among all English composers, Hatton with his new understanding of the German music and his sure foundation in the English melodious idiom, responded by producing a series of part-songs of which it has been said 'they were imitated by many but surpassed by none.' On his return from America Hatton became conductor of the Glee and Madrigal Union, and it was during the 1850s, while working with Charles Kean, that he published the first of his several collections of part songs, including "Absence", "When evening's twilight", "The happiest land", etc. They were performed by the 'Orpheus Vocal Union', a group of professional singers led by William Fielding. Hatton thus set the example for others like Henry Smart, George Alexander Macfarren and Walter Macfarren and very many more who followed where he led.