Six Hymn-Preludes, BOOK TWO

BOOK 2:
4. ST. DENIO
5. WERDE MUNTER 2:33
6. KING’S LYNN 6:19


Nearing the end of the war in 1944, Whitlock had submitted a manuscript of five Chorale Preludes to the OUP. His publisher Norman Peterkin at the OUP asked for one more so they could produce two books, each containing three pieces. For the additional Prelude, Whitlock transcribed an earlier orchestral score, ‘Fanfare on the Tune Song of Agincourt’ written in 1940. He completed the transcription for solo organ on the 12th of May 1944. He had cut out quiet a bit of repeated material from the original score

Malcolm Riley suggests that ‘two of the Preludes, on Werde Munter (Jesu joy) and Darwell’s 148th had originally been composed as far back as November 1923 when Whitlock was still a student at the RCM’. The Prelude on Orlando Gibbons’ Song 13 could also be assumed to be ‘an early effort’ being very much influenced by the Cantata writing of J.S. Bach.

In the July 1946 issue of Musical Opinion, an anonymous reviewer wrote. ‘…these preludes exhibit that originality and freshness of expression which distinguish so much of [Whitlock’s] work for the organ’.

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