Unpublished scores

About 100 works, A piano concerto, A piece for full orchestra, songs, solo piano pieces, a boogie, and instrumentals

Of the scores that I have, they consist of songs, piano pieces and works for instrumental groups including two pieces for piano and full orchestra and one for full orchestra. There are a few hand written published songs such as "So what" and "See you Friday". Also there are what he called "Melodic scrap books" containing over a 1000 themes with titles. I assume that these would have been used to supplement his main core pieces that he would play in his solo performances.
They are all completed works, some with just the chord instructions rather than the fully written part.
In theses scores there is some excellent music with the composer's original characteristic style of arrangement. Pieces that I have transcribed and recorded digitally can be found on my tribute website. I hope to add to these in time.
I found one piece in hand written score that I did not know had been recorded, It is called "The Salzburg Exchange Polka" for solo telephone and Orchestra and was on YouTube but has been removed.

 Concerto Romantico

Of the scores that I have (thanks to his great niece Georgina Harding), they consist of songs, piano pieces and works for instrumental groups including two pieces for piano and full orchestra and one for full orchestra. There are a few hand written published songs such as "So what" and "See you Friday". Also there are what he called "Melodic scrap books" containing over a 1000 themes with titles. I assume that these would have been used to supplement his main core pieces that he would play in his solo performances.
They are all completed works, some with just the chord instructions rather than the fully written part.
In theses scores there is some excellent music with the composer's original characteristic style of arrangement. Pieces that I have transcribed and recorded digitally can be found on my this website. I hope to add to these in time.
I found one piece in hand written score that I did not know had been recorded, It is called "The Salzburg Exchange Polka" for solo telephone and Orchestra and was on YouTube but has been removed.

 Songs

There are about 60 unpublished songs usually co-written, with different persons as well as with his song-writing partner Bill Crompton and almost all have a "love" theme. These are the ones that did not make it. These are likely to be the product of persons presenting their music to be knocked into shape if it had promise. The songs are well steeped in sentimental notions of the day. Love lost, regained, seeking, destroyed and betrayed. All of these are there.

 Solo Piano

The solo piano pieces consist of concert showpieces of which there are 2 and a remaining 30 pieces. The former are full of the bravura and tension that he was able to create in his live performances with fast runs and rhythmic accompaniment. In the London Concerto, after the big romantic theme has been stated, it is a tour de force to the end. In this genre there is "Spanish Rhapsody" which is subtitled "A Concert Piece for Pianoforte". He clearly liked the Latin form and I notice a number of his pieces are to be played "with a bright Latin beat". Of the 30 remaining pieces half were written by Morgan (occasionally with Bill Crompton) and the remainder jointly written with others. These fall into a further 4 modes of composition.

i) Descriptive with titles such as: - "The Ghost Train", "Man Underground", "Bobsleigh", "Through Train" and "Serenade of the Mandolins".

ii) Ballads with titles such as: - "Prelude to a Dream", "Beach Rhapsody" and "Summer in Sorrento".

iii) Short pieces with simple titles such as: - "Peanuts" (See picture), "The Dinger", "Bullseye!", "Hustle - Bustle", "Penny", "Michelle" and "Honky Tonk Gonk".

iv) Some may have been sketched on 2 staves intended for instruments but playble as a piano version. For example "Through Train" (see picture) may have been intended for guitar group.

As mentioned earlier, following Morgan's "discover" as a pianist in 1956 he was signed up by the record company "Oriole" and they released three 78's that year. Even though he wrote many pieces for solo piano he did not make any more records as a stand alone performer. He did play some solo piano in "So What" . The only solo piano peace to be performed was Winifred Atwell playing "Snowbells".

"Peanuts" Originally titled "Blue Bossonova" - an example of

a short "Popular" or "Novelty" Piece

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"Through Train"
Probably written for guitar group

Rock 68

There is one boogie piece call "Rock 68" (although it is not a pure boogie as the bass figure does not run constantly throughout). It is written in immaculate pencil script containing the usual runs, tremoloes and semiquaver passages as well as the boogie bass. He indicates the speed as 196 crotchet beats per minute or up to 13 notes per second. That is very fast! About as fast as "Bumble Boogie". A feature of his scores is that he shows all the keys names. This is sensible, as the reader will get an idea of the harmonic shape and where the piece is going. Definitely an aid to performance.

First page of "Rock 68" with immaculate pencil script

The boogie bass appears at the bottom right.

Instrumentals

"Mount of Olives" (See picture) in 20 parts including a pedalled harp. It is to be played "Slowly with expression" and is 92 bars long. Immaculately written in pencil. (See picture). The others are:- "Concerto for Bass Guitar" is written in 2 melodic lines on 2 staves and the only other instruments indicated are strings. "Drums of Navaho" is scored for guitars and drums. "Lizzard in a Blizzard" is another piece for Guitar solo and "Accompaniment". The instruments indicated suggest a small jazz group including tenor sax, piano, rhythm and solo guitars.

Final bars of "Mount of Olives" with all the instruments fortissimo.

Morgan's gold embossed conductor's manuscript folder. He had one of these for each section of the orchestra