Lament

People often ask WHERE do I find so many unusual pieces!

Most of them come from IMSLP, and the uploads there given by David Campbell tend to be my main source: https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/David_Campbell

This is the case with these two fine pieces.

George Thomas Francis (1884 - June 24, 1946) was a pupil of Bairstow, and organist to the Cowley Fathers in Oxford and music master of Ardingly College, Sussex, prior to hist appointment as organist of Southwell Minster in 1926. He published the two pieces I've uploaded today, as well as a "Song of Freedom," published by Stainer & Bell in 1941.

"Lament" was published by Oxford University Press in 1942. It is dedicated: "To my Tutor Ed. E (should be "C") Bairstow".

It is a three-section piece, starting with an hypnotic and chromatic theme played upon the strings of the Solo organ, as if in a violin solo. There is something both ancient and modern about it, and the harmonies are almost "eastern," with some unusual cadences.

The central section, is more "solid," with something of an "elegy" about it. This leads back to a slightly varied restatement of the opening material.

The score is attached below, as well as several photos of Southwell Minster, were G. T. Francis served as organist.

Southwell is one of the most beautiful and peaceful of all the great English cathedrals.

Notice just how MUCH more attractive the current organ case is, as opposed to the old one, which is certainly the way it would have looked when Francis was organist there!