Cantilène (Twelve Melodious Pieces, Op. 26, No. 6)

Edward Townshend Driffield (1851-?), an organist in Birkenhead, was described as an "amateur organist and composer" in Brown and Stratton's "British Musical Biography" of 1897.

He was a friend of the famous William T. Best, and inherited much of Best's collection after his death.

Driffield was a prolific composer for the organ, and the "Twelve Melodious Pieces, Op. 26" were published by E. Donajowski in 1898. They are "Inscribed to E. Donajowski, Esq."

Cantilène (in F) is the sixth of this collection, and the only one that I've looked at so far. It is indeed "melodious," and VERY pleasing. It WILL make you smile, as I indicated in the title space! :-)

It begins with a typical pastorale sounding section, using mostly soft reed stops over pedal points and pizzicato basses. A rhapsodic passage on the Great flutes occurs, and then things start to get more rollicking!

Animation and dynamics shift and build up with great charm, before settling down to the wonderful final page.

The last page is pretty close to pure theater organ music, and the addition of the pungent Solo strings to the Swell really enhance that effect. An acceleration occurs over another pedal-point, and full organ (almost) is briefly reached. Then all of this quickly dissolves and melts away, leaving only the happy hush of the calm field from whence we started, surrounded perhaps by delicate wildflowers swaying in the cool breeze.

If you're listening as you read this, you'll already know why I issued my "Smile Alert" at the start!

If you haven't listened yet, go ahead! You WILL smile and have you spirit uplifted!

The score, courtesy of Dr. John Henderson, is attached below.

Tomorrow - two AMAZING settings of the great Easter hymn, "O filii et filliae!"

Peace, safety and a S-M-I-L-E to all!