ABSTRACT
As Organist of St Paul's Cathedral, Organist and Composer of the Chapel Royal, Master of the King's Musick and honorary Professor of Music at Cambridge, Maurice Greene was not only the most eminent, but also the most naturally gifted, of Handel's English contemporaries. Of Greene's published harpsichord music, much the most substantial items are the Six Overtures printed by John Walsh in October 1745, and arranged, seemingly by the composer himself, from the orchestral originals published six months earlier. As with the Six Overtures, the music in the volume is thoroughly modern and stylistically up-to-date. Five years later, in November 1750, Greene published a rather more substantial volume of original keyboard music entitled A Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord, and this was printed not by Walsh (who had hitherto been the composer's main publisher), but by his rival, John Johnson at the Harp & Crown in Cheapside.
