Kevin Mayhew RIP

[Andrew Butler]

The death has been announced of the publisher Kevin Mayhew.

[DaveHarries]

A shame to hear of this. Back when I was learning the organ while at school I used some of his books. RIP.

Dave

[Martin Cooke]

I have had no nexus at all with KM, but have a number of his albums in which there are some real treasures - I think of two pieces my Dom Gregory Manor, some excellent pieces by June Nixon, Alan Viner, Philip Moore, Christopher Tambling, Malcolm Archer,  Stanley Vann, Noel Rawsthorne, to name but a few. His publications have frequently been maligned, but, I feel, unfairly. OK, I wouldn't buy his Bach or Mendelssohn editions, but there is much that is very valuable. More recently, I've come  across new albums were produced which seemed to contain little new material, so you can end up with a volume of music which you already have in an older and different guise. OK, in amongst some of the treasures there is some that is less good - but isn't that always the case with albums?

[S_L]

Here is an obituary for Kevin Mayhew.

Kevin Mayhew - A Tribute | ICN (indcatholicnews.com)

I have to say that I don't, and I suspect there will be a good number of others on here, share, entirely, the same views as the writer of the obituary. 'Peace perfect peace' and 'I watch the sunrise' would belong, in my opinion, to what VW called his 'Chamber of horrors' and I shuddered, when being given the hymns to play the organ for a school Mass, seeing them both appear - along with 'In bread we bring you, Lord', 'Go the Mass is ended' and other such gems!!! I think that he, and some of his other publishers & writers, did irreparable harm to Catholic Church Music in the 1960's and 70's - from which, in some places, it has never really recovered.

Conversely, later in his life I thought he made a real contribution to bringing music of quality by composers of today into the hands of church musicians - and all at a reasonable price!!! 

[Dee Surtees]

I can’t say I have ever come across any of his hymns, but had a brief look through my hymnbooks to see what they were like. They were all entirely typical of what I might expect, and the only one that I thought was worth anything was "You are beneath me". His publishing was definitely a mixed bag, but he deserves credit for bringing the world the music of composers such as Nixon, Rawsthorne, and Tambling.