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(Henry) Walford Davies
Solemn Melody
(for Strings and Organ)
(1908)
Transcribed for Organ Solo by
Ennis Fruhauf
Notes
(Henry) Walford Davies was born in Oswestry, Shropshire on September 6, 1869. He trained in the choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and was a student assistant to Walter Parratt. He entered the Royal College of Musicians in 1890 with a scholarship in composition, where he studied with Charles Parry and Charles Stanford. Following several church appointments, he served as Organist and Choirmaster at the Temple Church, London from 1898 to 1919. He was appointed Director of Music for the Royal Air Force in 1918, and was Professor of Music at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1919 to 1926.
Davies was knighted in 1922 and served as Organist of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor from 1927 to 1932. His radio series, ‘Music and the Ordinary Listener’ commenced in 1926, the same year that he was named Gresham Professor of Music at the University of London. In 1934 he was appointed Master of the King’s Musick, succeeding Edward Elgar. He died in Wrington, Somerset on March 11, 1941.
Solemn Melody was written in 1908 and became a familiar and much loved part of the repertoire for solo organ when it was transcribed by John E. West. In more recent years it has been published in several other editions, and in one of its rebirths, it was arranged as an anthem by H. A. Chambers, with a text by Edith Dorothy Pleydell-Bouverie, "Had we but hearkened to Thy Word."
This transcription is a departure from the organ version by West in that it retains the hymn-like simplicity of the original composition for strings and organ. The overall form of Solemn Melody is that of a sixteen-measure phrase structure, presented first by the cello, then repeated in the soprano registers with a climactic and heroic buildup; it opens with a brief introduction and concludes with the hushed tones of a codetta. In keeping with the original score, no interpretive texts have been added, although a romantic performance would seem to be inherent in the nature of the work.
Copyright © 2004 Ennis Fruhauf
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