Although there is nothing in his vast compositional output which would scare the horses at the local racetrack, his oeuvre is worthy of reassessment. He could have wished for no more persuasive an advocate than Duncan Ferguson nor a finer instrument than this glorious (and historically ‘correct’) ‘Father’ Willis/Harrison and Harrison. Over 500 organ works were published. There are several hundred other pieces still in manuscript, including a string quintet, a string octet and piano and violin concertos. Twice-married, Faulkes named his youngest child John Sebastian and enjoyed the advocacy of Lemare, Hollins (to whom the Concert Overture in E flat is dedicated) and Guilmant, for whom the sturdy Fantasia was composed. Such was his reputation that before and after the Great War Faulkes journeyed several times to Germany to record player rolls for the Welte Company.

Faulkes’s idiom is diatonically stolid and workmanlike, if rather self-effacing in quieter moments. The highlights on this disc include the sturdily virile Festival Prelude on ‘Ein feste Burg’ and the charming Barcarolle – really a technical study in sixths – which has echoes of Widor. As an example of the transcriber’s art, Faulkes’s treatment of Rubinstein’s Mélodie in F is handled with great delicacy, with some alluring use of the tremulants. The booklet is informative though lacking a photograph of the composer.