Chorale Prelude on a Theme by Tallis, Op. 20 No. 3

Harold Edwin Darke was born in London, October 29, 1888, he studied the organ with Parratt and attended the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. He had a world-wide reputation as one of the finest organists of his era. He held positions at Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead (1906) and at St. James's Paddington. For fifty years from 1916 to 1966, he was organist of St. Michael's Cornhill, London. His weekly Monday lunch time recitals there became an institution. During the second war he deputised at Kings College, Cambridge for Boris Ord from 1941 to 1945, who was on war service. Darke was president of the Royal College of Organists 1940-41 and a member of the teaching staff at the R.C.O. from 1919 to 1966, in which year he was appointed C.B.E. He died at Cambridge on November 28, 1976.

"Chorale Prelude on a Theme by Tallis" is the 3rd and last of a group of Chorale Preludes by Darke. that were published by Novello in 1919.

It is a highly dramatic work. Austere, yet intensely passionate, Darke takes the tune by Tallis, which is first heard alone on the plaintive tones of the Orchestral Oboe on the Solo organ. The work works through a series of "connected variations" and grows to a trememndous climax when the theme is now stated in "neo-Tudor harmony" and played on the full organ. The phrases are "interrupted" by "pedal flourishes," and the "mistakes" that you hear are correct - I hope...

The music gradually winds down in the "typical cathedral manner," before the tune appears again on the Orchestral Oboe. The conclusion is a profound but sad one.

A photo of Darke is attached.

I had intended this upload for Wednesday, but I was running a bit behind my schedule.

More uploads for Maundy Thursday (today) and Good Friday to follow.