Between 1918 and 1920, Herbert Howells wrote three Carol-Anthems, of which “Here is the little door” was the first. It is based on a poem by Frances Chesterton (1869–1938), the wife of the great apologist and journalist G. K. Chesterton. In one of his own poem’s — “The Ballad of the White Horse” — Chesterton credited her with playing a crucial role in his own faith: Therefore I bring these rhymes to youWho brought the cross to me. Unable to have any children, Frances Chesterton was deeply moved by the image of the Nativity and regularly wrote poems depicting the Infant Jesus for inclusion in Christmas cards. The best known of these is…
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Herbert Howells,
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Howells, Magnificat (Gloucester Service)
Herbert Howells composed more than twenty settings of the canticles appointed for use in Evening Prayer (the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis). Many of them are identified by the name of the cathedral in which they were first sung. When commissioned to compose a work for initial use in a specific liturgical space, Howells took great care to understand the acoustic qualities of the place, especially how certain notes were naturally heard as having richer resonance. But he was alert to more than the sound of the space. Howells once wrote of “the ecstasy he felt at seeing light flood through the great east window of Gloucester Cathedral.” The Magnificat he wrote…
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Herbert Howells: Musical Stewardship & Innovation
by Ken Myers [This article originally appeared in the July/August 2014 issue of Touchstone magazine.] When he was born, Queen Victoria had almost another decade to rule. He died near the end of Margaret Thatcher’s first term. While he lived through nine decades of remarkable change, composer Herbert Howells came of age at a time when artists were already being haunted by cultural turmoil and uncertainty. In 1913, when Howells was 21, the French poet Charles Péguy judged that “the world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last thirty years.” While some Promethean souls were energized by the possibilities opened up by the…
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Recommended recording: Christmas Night (Cambridge Singers)
Almost every year, someone in our parish asks me to recommend some recordings of Christmas music. Since I’ve been collecting such albums since before there were commercial cassette tapes readily available (let alone CDs or MP3s), it’s not easy to come up with a short list. Over the twelve days of Christmas, I hope to have the time and discipline to offer here some suggestions about music to listen to that transcends the tendency toward sentimentalism in the sounds of Christmas that characterizes (tragically) the experience of far too many people. I’ll start with a very approachable recording that features a number of familiar carols and hymns, including many arrangements that have been…
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Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Writing about the music of Herbert Howells, his student and biographer Paul Spicer summarizes: This is not music to draw in the masses. It is not music to be broadcast from loudspeakers across a football stadium with massed congregations. It is a private spiritual experience and his aim was to conjure a very specific atmosphere. This is music addressing a God who is firmly in his heaven and where his angels minister for him on earth. It is music of dignity, distance and also incredible passion, which creates an intense sense of wonder in the listener. It is musical impressionism – very much parallel to what was being so successfully…
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Howells, A Hymn for St. Cecilia
Not surprisingly, there are many musical works in honor of the patron saint of music. In 1960, English composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983) was commissioned to compose A Hymn for St. Cecilia by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 1959-60, Howells was Master of this body, which is one of the Livery Companies of the city of London with a history dating back to the middle of the fourteenth century. At one time, this musicians’ guild had complete control over all musical performances in London. They now serve a ceremonial and philanthropic role. The text chosen for Howells’s piece is by poet and writer Ursula Vaughan Williams (1911-2007), the second wife of composer…