Fancy on a Catch of Richard Brown

 

Fancy on a Catch of Richard Brown - (2011)    

for organ

 

The theme is drawn from The Catch Club or Merry Companions being a Choice Collection of the most Diverting Catches for three and Four voices Compos'd by the late Mr. Henry Purcell, Dr. Blow & c. Properly titled in the collection, "A Catch on Malt Liquor, sung by three Porters," the text for this round  [ 1 ]  reads: "Of honest Malt Liquor, let English boys sing, / a pox take French Claret, we'll drink no such thing, / but London brew'd staple, stout Burton and Lincoln, / they'll find us good matter to talk or to think on, / to King, Lords and Commons, toast a health e'er we rise, / tho' we lower our pockets, yet we raise his Excise."

 

The catch theme is introduced by gestures of dotted rhythms and scale passages ending in fermati. The theme is accompanied at the outset by a rhythm in the left hand designed to lightly frustrate the sense of the bar line. The same is true for the initial bass line after measure 19.  A episode or two break the repetitions of the theme, and a last pomposo cadence brings the fancy to a rousing close.

 

 

The entire work is here, , an MP3 file [ circa 2' 30" ]

 

The score for Fancy on a Catch of Richard Brown is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this organ score.

 

Fancy on a Catch of Richard Brown

                   

NOTES

 

[ 1 ]      The simple round is as follows: