9th January 2012 @ 1pm
Music by Herbert Howells, Vierne & Franck
St Michael’s Cornhill
City of London
Organ Recital
Monday 28th November – 1pm
Liszt – Excelsior!
Georg Böhm – Praeludium in d
Heiller – Variations On ‘Nun Komm’, der Heiden Heiland’
Hansen – Interlude to the memory of David Sanger
Parry – Fantasia & Fugue in G (1882)
Darke – Organ Suite (Prelude, Pastoral, Toccata)
Howells – Psalm Prelude – Set 2 no. 3
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Organ Works of Herbert Howells
17th October 2011 – 1pm
Newcastle Cathedral
On the 119th anniversary of the birth of Herbert Howells, a rare oppotunity to hear his first and last major organ works: the Sonata no.1 in C minor (1911) and the Partita (1971).
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Harold Darke
Jonathan is currently editing some of Harold Darke‘s unpublished instrumental works. An extract from his First Violin Sonata op.2 (MIDI) can be heard by clicking on the player below.
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Organ Recital – Canterbury Cathedral
Saturday 25th June – 7.30pm
Sonata Eroica – Joseph Jongen
Sonata in F – C P E Bach
Psalm Preludes (Set 1) – Herbert Howells
Cathédrales – Louis Vierne
Interlude in memory of David Sanger – Flemming Chr. Hansen
Tu es Petra – Henri Mulet
Tickets: £8/£6
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Herbert Howells: An English Mass
With this year’s English Music Festival featuring two major works by Herbert Howells, it’s well worth checking out. On Sunday 29th May The City of London Choir with The Holst Orchestra will be giving a concert that includes An English Mass. The next day Howells’ Second Violin Sonata features in the form of a new edition by Paul Spicer. If you can’t get to Dorchester, the mass is being repeated in a concert on Thursday 23 June 2011 at 7.30pm in St John’s, Smith Square.
And if you can’t get to either of them, Hyperion released a very good CD of the mass in 1992 with Vernon Handley and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra which is available for download here.
Programme Note
An English Mass – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Gloria
Despite considerable interest in Herbert Howells’ early works, it took until he was nearly sixty, with the first performance of Hymnus Paradisi (at the 1950 Gloucester Three Choirs Festival), for him to score a major success with the critical press. Following this, the Festival was very keen to commission another large scale work for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Howells’ response was the Missa Sabrinensis (Mass of the Severn), highly similar in style, equally complex but considerably longer than Hymnus. The size of the work proved too much for the performers and the first performance in Worcester was followed by an even bigger disaster during the London premiere, during which they had to stop at one point.
Howells, ever sensitive to the critics, followed the Missa Sabrinensis with another mass setting, again for chorus and orchestra, but this time with a number of major differences. An English Mass is half the length (at around 35 minutes) and scored for chorus, strings and organ, with optional parts for flute, oboe, timpani and harp for concert performance and a short ‘Sursum Corda’ for liturgical use. The ‘English’ descriptor refers to the language of the text from the Book of Common Prayer (although, as usual, the Kyrie is in Greek). The Mass was completed in early 1956 and dedicated to Harold Darke and his St Michael Singers who gave the first performance in June 1956 during a concert to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Darke’s appointment at St Michael’s Church, Cornhill. Alongside the Mass were Hierusalem by Sir George Dyson and A Vision of Aeroplanes by Ralph Vaughan Williams. After the concert, Howells wrote praising the choir: “They were grand; quick to learn the bulk of my strange notes, and inspired in finding better ones when mine didn’t fit”.
The Mass contains a huge variety of styles and moods, from the rhapsodical, delicate unfolding of the Kyrie to the blazing fortissimos and highly arresting rhythmic fanfares that occur in the Gloria, Credo (particularly when the chorus burst in following the opening intonation) and Sanctus (the enormous build up to ‘Lord most high’). Regardless of Howells’ own lack of faith, the Mass is characterised by the assertiveness of (in his words) the “personal and creative reaction to a text of immense, immemorial significance”. One can hardly fail to sense a personal optimism with moments such as the solo line ‘I look for the resurrection of the dead’ in the Credo; even after the passing of over twenty years, Howells’ works were still deeply influenced by the death of his son, Michael.
©2011 Jonathan Clinch
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Howells @ The Bate Collection, Oxford University
GALLERY RECITAL
A Historical Keyboard recital with Jonathan Clinch
Come hear keyboard works by Herbert Howells at Oxford University’s Bate Collection, one of the most magnificent collections of musical instruments in the world.
Tuesday 10 May 1.00pm – 1.45pm
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Before me, Careless lying
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| View from Leith Hill Tower |
Leith Hill Music Festival have announced their forthcoming programme, including a very rare piece by Herbert Howells on Day 3 (9th April) of the Festival, ‘Before me, Careless lying’.
One can only wonder at what Christmas was like in the Howells’ household as several of his works, including the madrigal ‘Before me, Careless lying’ (1918) and the coronation anthem ‘Behold O God our defender’ (1952), were completed on Christmas Day.
The text by Austin Dobson (1840-1921) was initially set to music by C H Lloyd and published by Novello in 1901. Howells would have found Dobson’s style, his use of forgotten French forms from earlier ages and revelment in a golden age of poetry, was in perfect parallel to his own love of music from the golden age of Byrd and Tallis. Howells first set the text in 1916 as part of a collection of four solo songs (which included the popular King David) giving it the title ‘A Madrigal’. This piece is available online from the University of Rochester.
The five part version dates from a period when Howells was working for Dr R R Terry at Westminster Cathedral, editing Tudor music for publication. The pastiche madrigal follows the form of the solo song. There are four verses, three of which are light and rhythmically energetic contrasting with a slower and more expansive setting of the penultimate verse (Nay child, I cry). Howells dedicates the work ‘To my friend Dr R R Terry’. It was recorded by The Finzi Singers under Paul Spicer in 2006.
©2011 Jonathan Clinch
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Epiphany Term Concert
DURHAM POLYPHONY
German Renaissance Masterpieces
St Margaret’s Church, Crossgate
Tuesday 15th March
7.30pm
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Piano Works of Herbert Howells
28th February 2011 – 1pm
Newcastle Cathedral
A rare opportunity to hear some of the piano music written by Herbert Howells. Influenced by Rachmaninov, Debussy and Ravel, yet uniquely English, Howells’ music is amongst the finest written in the first half of the twentieth century.
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Dr Jonathan Clinch 