Zwei Töne, Tenore Ostinato

Arthur Murray Goodhart (christened 25 July 1866 – 1941) was a British composer and organist. He was born in Wimbledon, Surrey, England in 1866, and was educated at Eton College and then King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Pitt Club. He was a pupil of Sir Joseph Barnby, Dr. George M. Garrett, Dr Charles W. Pearce, C. Forsyth, and Frank Bridge. He Taught classics at Eton School, and was a housemaster there.

As a composer, he wrote orchestral, organ, and piano pieces, songs, carols, military band music.

As a performer he was said to have "flair and a light hand."

"Zwei Töne, Tenore Ostinato" was published by George Withers & Sons and is dated 1907. It is the first work in "Ten Original Compositions."

Written in the key of A-flat major, it features an almost constant ostinato of two notes, "E-flat and F" which are almost constantly present, but which appear in different "ways" and with different phrasings.

Like many of Goodhart's works, there's something of a "puzzle" present, which you must solve before working it all out. At first, this seemed quite pointless, but actually, it's a very nicely attractive piece.

On a technical side, it features some very wide stretches in the right hand, but after a few times, these start to just "happen," and don't seem quite as hard.

I chose the Hereford Willis, because of the nasal Lieblich Gedacht of the Choir, which worked very nicely on this piece. The registrations that Goodhart calls for are by no means "standard registrations" for the English organ.

The score is attached below, as well a photo of Goodhart, and several of the chapels of King's College and of Eton.