My friend Jenny has been championing John Ebenezer West (1863-1929) and the virtues of his Passacaglia in B minor for about a year, and she’s delighted that it has now been published by Fitzjohn Music Publications, under the editorship of David Patrick. It was written in memory of Josef Rheinberger, and described in a recent review as ‘a sort of village organist’s moment of wishful thinking’ – nothing like as hard as Rheinberger or Bach, but a splendid little piece all the same.
I caught up with David Patrick at the recent Bloomsbury Organ Day, and bought a copy. He specialises in editing and publishing sheet music for organ, sacred vocal music,and piano duets and trios. An organist, accompanist and conductor, he had done a lot of hand copying for publishers like Novello, in the days before computer software was able to handle music with any competence. However “on retiring as a teacher, I was one of the first people to get hold of Sibelius” he said, and Fitzjohn Music Publications was the result, founded in 1998.
A recent project for David has been editing a four volume anthology of 18th century English Organ music, this time for publishers OUP. From easy to moderately difficult it includes music by Handel, and some less familiar – Heron, Hook, Hawdon, Broderip and Blewitt to name but a few. Each volume includes an introduction to the instruments of the period and registration, and editorial realisations of appropriate cadenzas.
18th Century English Organ Music
A graded anthology
edited by David Patrick
OUP 2013 4 volumes, £9.95 each
Hear Henk van der Maten play the John E West Passacaglia here:
Thanks Morwenna! Not quite as ‘con moto’ a performance as I was hoping for but I hope there will be a few organists wanting to give that a try. I have seen the Bardon Music publication as well now – it looks much the same – nice and clear score. You can search for it on the net.
I agree Jenny, this performance is a bit lugubrious, and I would play it faster