Albert Ketèlbey: In A Persian Market: Organ: Instrumental Work

Albert W Ketèlbey's most popular works appear to have been a series of Orchestral tone poems like In a Persian Market that incorporate exoticism and demonstrate the high quality of his Orchestration. The Orchestral version of this piece included a Vocal line of male Voices calling for baksheesh which is absent from the Organ arrangement.Composer and arranger Albert W Ketèlbey is now almost unknown except for his work Bells Across the Meadows but until the time of the Second World War he strode the country’s musical stage like a giant of light musical entertainment. In 1929 he was declared ‘Britain’s greatest composer’ according to the number of performances of his works. Over the course of his career he was a church Organist musical director at London’s Vaudeville Theatre editor to several music publishing firms and Music Director of the Columbia Gramophone Company.