For as long as the Anglican Communion continues its time-honoured traditional celebration of Evensong, Harold Darke the composer will be remembered for his Evening Service in F major. No less enduring, his much-loved Christmas anthem, In the Bleak Midwinter belongs to a group of short choral items, chiefly for the Christmas season, which embodies his unique gift for memorable melody and harmony. Many of these, Love Came Down at Christmas, for example, and A Christmas Carol ‘The Shepherds had an Angel, the Wise Men had a star’, unavailable for many years, are now back in print, to be rediscovered and enjoyed by a new generation of singers. Darke added sparingly to the repertoire of his own instrument, the organ, but did so always with works of fine quality, such as the Rhapsody, Opus 4. His occasional pieces for the piano include the Five Miniatures, piano pieces for young players of early to intermediate grade, with a ‘Song without Words’ in classic folksong style at the centre of the collection.

Composed in the First-World-War period and its aftermath, two short cantatas for chorus and orchestra, the elegiac ‘As the Leaves Fall’, written ‘To the undying memory of those who have fallen’, and The Kingdom of God, setting Francis Thompson’s ‘O world invisible we view thee’, add another dimension to Darke’s achievement, and reveal his sensitivity to the times. Owing to an interrupted transmission history of material, vocal scores only of these works may currently be obtained, but full scores and parts will be added to the catalogue when they become available. [Photos courtesy of John Bertalot]