Prelude on "Down Ampney"

Henry George Ley MA DMus FRCO FRCM HonRAM (30 December 1887 – 24 August 1962) was an English organist, composer and music teacher.

He was born in Chagford in Devon on 30 December 1887, and was a chorister at St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle, Music Scholar at Uppingham School, Organ Scholar of Keble College Oxford (1906) where he was President of the University Musical Club in 1908, and an Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music where he was a pupil of Sir Walter Parratt and Marmaduke Barton. He was organist at St Mary’s, Farnham Royal, from 1905–1906, and at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (1909–1926), Professor of organ at the Royal College of Music in London from 1919, and Precentor at Radley College and at Eton College (that is, in charge of the music in College Chapel) from 1926 to 1945. He was an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, from 1926 to 1945 and died on 24 August 1962.

He was a composer of some organ works, but mainly choral works, including a celebrated setting of the Founder’s Prayer of King Henry VI. This piece, written for King's College, Cambridge, is a classic, and is "technically" easy. It is attached below.

The "Prelude on 'Down Ampney'" is based on the the famous tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and was published by Oxford University Press in 1959. I think this may have been Ley's last work, although I'm not sure.

It is a flowing, pastoral-like setting of the tune, written in D major, but with some unexpectedly beautiful harmonic touches, which harken back to the music of William Byrd and the like. It is another quintessential Anglican utterance.

I've done the registration EXACTLY as Ley indicated. The first section is played upon the Swell strings and 8' flute, with the melody be played in the tenor on the Great small diapason. The second section features the Great clarabella as the solo voice.