Andantino (Twelve Miniatures, No. 4)

Henry Marcellus Higgs (1854-1929) was the son of Marcellus Higgs (1827-1897) and Clara Tomlin. His father, also an organist, published no organ music.

H. M. Higgs worked with several music publishers and published a fairly large output of organ music. I have no indication of any places at which he served as organist, but he clearly knew how to write for the instrument.

Unfortunately, this is all the biographical information that I have about Henry Higgs.

"Twelve Miniatures" dates from 1913 and was published by Novello & Co. Ltd. The set was part of the publisher's "Original Compositions for the Organ (New Series)," where it appears as No. 27. It is dedicated: "To A. Healey Foster, Esq." Each piece is different in style and format, and some could be called "studies" as they deal with a particular technical aspect of organ playing.

The fourth piece, "Andantino" is in the key of A major, and written in 4/8 time. This is definitely of the salon-type, and is a typical "child of its time." It's really a violin solo with piano accompaniment, probably to played in the parlor on a Sunday evening, but it's still nice, with a few interesting harmonic twists here and there.

In this case, the "violin solo" is played upon the Swell Oboe with tremulant. :-)

I have no photos of Henry Marcellus Higgs to share, but the score is attached below.