Contemplation on 'Hawkhurst' & Hymntune 'Hawkhurst'

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. A great festival when we think of fire and wind and a lot of excitement! As a change, here is a "meditative" piece, followed by a complete performance of the hymn-tune on which it is based.

Alec Rowley (13 March 1892 – 11 January 1958) was an English composer and writer on music. He studied at London's Royal Academy of Music with Frederick Corder, and later taught at Trinity College in the same city. He frequently performed and broadcast piano duets with Edgar Moy, and was widely known for his compositions for amateur forces. He wrote many pieces for solo piano and solo organ.

He was for many years the organist of St Alban's Church, Teddington and was a contributor to 'The Rotunda', the house magazine of Henry Willis & Sons Ltd.

"Contemplation on 'Hawkhurst'" comes from the same collection of "Festal Voluntaries" that the Cook "Veni Creator" was taken, and was published in by Novello in 1956. It is a flowing work in the "gentle" key of A-flat, and has a nice "small" climax in the middle. The "counter melody" is played on the Solo Clarinet, while the tune itself, always appears on the Great organ.

Henry John Gauntlett (9 July 1805, in Wellington, Shropshire – 21 February 1876, in London) was an English organist and songwriter known in British music circles for his authorship of a large number of hymns and other pieces for the organ. He had a career in law until he was almost forty years of age, when he abandoned the profession and devoted himself to music. The degree of Mus. Doc. was conferred on him by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he
patented an "electrical-action apparatus" for organs. He wrote much music and over 1,000 hymn tunes, and edited a large number of hymn books. His most famous tune is "Irby", the tune to which the Christmas carol, "Once in Royal David's City" is sung. He died in London aged seventy in 1876.

Photos of Rowley & Gauntlett are attached below.

Hymn text in the first comment.