Impromptu in F (Written for an Organ with a single Manual)

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."

"Impromptu in F" was published by George Withers & Sons and is dated 1910. It is the ninth work in "Ten Original Compositions."

Marked "Allegretto grazioso," it's a pleasing, but "fussy" scamper, that is tricky to execute, and without too much chance to catch one's breath.

I did follow Goodhart's directive that this is to be played on on manual, in this case, the Swell, and I limited my "changes" to a few addition and subtraction of stops.

As I've said in several other uploads, these pieces are VERY rare scores, and most of them seem to have been checked in proofing. In this case, there seems to be a number of errors in the last few measures, and I've played my performance based upon similar recurrent measures/patterns in the same composition. In other words, I played what seemed correct to me. :-)

I suppose you can call this another "novelty" and probably only of importance to people like me, who have a real interest in these obscure, long-forgotten pieces, but still, here it is. :-)

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