The James Hook Collection

A varied selection from one of the most popular composers of his generation.
Very useful material for the relatively inexperienced student: interesting piano parts too!
Edited by Bernard Thomas.
Score and part.

James Hook (1746-1827) started life as an infant prodigy – he was playing concertos in public at the age of six and never looked back.  At the age of 17 he went to London, and quickly found work as a keyboard player in fashionable coffee houses.  By the age of 28 he was the official composer and organist at Vauxhall Gardens, then one of the most fashionable parks in the city; he held this position for the next fifty years.

He was a master of entertainment music, and an extremely prolific composer: he wrote over 2000 songs, and his opus number go up to 140 (some of them are sets of 6 or 12 sonatas).  It would be unreasonable to expect any great originality from a musician who worked at such a speed, and indeed much of his music is derivative and facile.  But he certainly had a gift for melody, and was especially skilful at integrating popular elects into his music, such as the “Scottish” style, with its use of short-long rhythms.

There are more than twenty sets of pieces for piano or harpsichord with “an accompaniment for violin or flute”.  A few exploit the special possibilities of the violin with use of double stops, etc.  But typically the solo parts are pleasantly tuneful, and suitable for many instruments.  Most of the simpler pieces, such as those headed “Divertimentino”, fit very well ons the recorder when transposed up a third or a fourth.