Paul Harris, founder of Queen's Temple Publications, explains this landmark in the company's history...
I started Queen’s Temple Publications exactly ten years ago – so our 100th publication also coincides with our tenth birthday! The idea was to make available rather specialised wind chamber music (and if the publications only sold a couple of copies a year – no matter! It was having these pieces out there and available that was important). We began with some of my own ensemble music but an important break came a year or two later. I asked Sir Malcolm Arnold if he would become out first President. Not only did he agree but he also gave us his Divertimento for Two Clarinets for publication. It’s a very late work and quite fascinating. It put us on the map!
Since then we have managed to build a catalogue of other intriguing works, mostly for wind, by the likes of Charles Camilleri, John Dankworth, James Rae, Christopher Gunning, Barrington Pheloung and Robert Tucker. More recently we have extended our brief and have taken on works for other instruments too.
But at the core of our catalogue we have over twenty works by the great Sir Malcolm including his superb early Wind Quintet – a work that had been lost for over sixty years (and of which, incidentally, I gave the first revival performance). Last year we also published two short books: Stress Busting for Musicians by Irene Lock and a lavishly illustrated biography of Ruth Arnold (Malcolm’s very talented artist/poet sister).
Here’s to the next 100!
Paul Harris