Book Two - Seven Sketches for Organ (On Verses from the Psalms)

‘Seven Sketches for Organ (on Verses from the Psalms)’ were written at lightning speed in the space of a fortnight in May 1934. The seven pieces are divided into two books or volumes and were published in 1935 as:
BOOK ONE
Pastorale
Duetto
Plaint
Exultemus

BOOK TWO
Preambule
Intermezzo
Sortie

The order of the pieces in the collection took Whitlock some time to decide upon. A letter from him to Hubert Foss at the O.U.P. of 17 August 1934 read:
‘Dear Mr Foss,
Thankyou for your letter of the 16th. I am glad to hear that you are willing to publish the new organ pieces. The only one I don’t care for is Plaint, which I see you also omit from your list. If we were to omit it, I think it would unduly shorten that volume. I am fond of Duetto, and should not like to scrap that one, especially as it goes awfully well on the organ. On the other hand, it might perhaps go towards yet another set in the future, then you could publish (in this order) Preambule, Exultemus, Intermezzo & Sortie, in one book. It would be a big volume though, and I think on the whole they had better stand as they are, if you are agreeable – I leave it to you.
Yours sincerely,
Percy Whitlock’

It seems they did stand as they were and when published, received high praise in reviews; this from Harvey Grace in the Musical Times of November 1935:
… ‘his vein remains lyrical and expressive, but this work shows signs of a growth in design, and makes one confident that he will do something first rate in classical organ forms’. In February the following year, Whitlock put the last touches to his manuscript of the substantial Sonata for Organ which would take its rightful place alongside those by Elgar, Bairstow, Howells and Harris.
In the April 1936 edition of the Organists’ Quarterly Record, the reviewer wrote: ‘In the Seven Sketches the composer is entirely himself, and his music for each selected psalm-verse is as moving in its sincerity as in its perfect fitness for an expression of the words’.