| Description: | Henry Marcellus Higgs (1854-1929) was the son of Marcellus Higgs (1827-1897) and Clara Tomlin. His father, also an organist, published no organ music.
H. M. Higgs worked with several music publishers and published a fairly large output of organ music. I have no indication of any places at which he served as organist, but he clearly knew how to write for the instrument.
Unfortunately, I have little biographical information about Henry Higgs, but THANKS to our member "diapason," we now know that he was organist of Christ Church, Sutton, and St. Paul's Church, Great Portland Street, London. THANK YOU DIAPASON!
"Twelve Miniatures" dates from 1913 and was published by Novello & Co. Ltd. The set was part of the publisher's "Original Compositions for the Organ (New Series)," where it appears as No. 27. It is dedicated: "To A. Healey Foster, Esq." Each piece is different in style and format, and some could be called "studies" as they deal with a particular technical aspect of organ playing.
The tenth piece, "Allegro moderato" is in the key of D major, and written in 4/4 time. This work is essentially a trio, although a few "chords" in spots. :-) It has an appeal to it in terms of harmonic and melodic interest, and seems more "modern" in some of the tonalities.
In this case, the registrations use nothing above 8's tops, with the exception that the 4' flute on the Swell is used with the 8' stops. The Pedal is only the Bourdons at 16' and 8'.
Initially, I didn't like this one, but after a few times, I did!
I have no photos of Henry Marcellus Higgs to share, but the score is attached below, as well as two photos of Christ Church, Sutton, where Higgs served as organist. |
Sign up today to download piece.
See what Agnus_Dei used to make this recording