For SATB and Organ

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) was a prodigiously gifted musician and the favourite student of the notoriously hard-to-please Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Throughout his long life, he was one of the country's most prominent composers, writing extensively in all genres except the symphony and opera. Yet today he is known mostly for his church music, and there is as yet relatively little serious study of his work. This book is the first large-scale study of Howells's music, affording both detailed consideration of individual works and a broad survey of general characteristics and issues. Its coverage is wide-ranging, addressing all aspects of the composer's prolific output and probing many of the issues that it raises. The essays are gathered in five sections: Howells the Stylist examines one of the most striking aspect of the composer's music, its strongly characterised personal voice; Howells the Vocal Composer addresses both his well-known contribution to church music and his less familiar, but also important, contribution to the genre of solo song; Howells the Instrumental Composer shows that he was no less accomplished for his work in genres without words, for which, in fact, he first made his name; Howells the Modern considers the composer's rather overlooked contribution to the development of a modern voice for British music; and Howells in Mourning explores the important impact of his son's death on his life and work. The composer that emerges from these studies is a complex figure: technically fluent but prone to revision and self-doubt; innovative but also conservative; a composer with an improvisational sense of flow who had a firm grasp of musical form; an exponent of British musical style who owed as much to continental influence as to his national heritage. This volume, comprising a collection of outstanding essays by established writers and emergent scholars, opens up the range of Howells's achievement to a wider audience, both professional and amateur. PHILLIP COOKE is Lecturer in Composition at the University of Aberdeen. DAVID MAW is Tutor and Research Fellow in Music at Oriel College, Oxford, holding Lectureships also at Christ Church, The Queen's and Trinity Colleges. CONTRIBUTORS: Byron Adams, Paul Andrews, Graham Barber, Jonathan Clinch, Phillip A. Cooke, Jeremy Dibble, Lewis Foreman, Fabian Huss, David Maw, Diane Nolan Cooke, Lionel Pike, Paul Spicer, Jonathan White. Foreword by John Rutter.

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis is one of the 20 evening canticles written by Herbert Howells for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge in 1957. This sheet music is arranged for SATB Choir and Organ accompaniment. Herbert Howells was a renowned English composer of church music in the Anglican evensong tradition, best known for his 'Hymnus Paradisi' and as a teacher at the Royal College of Music. His lesser-known evening canticles include this piece: a calm and atmospheric choral song whose divine and soaring melodies have inspired audiences for years. The interplay of the bass/tenor and soprano/alto melodies combined with the powerful organ chords create a stirring and uplifting piece that builds to a glorious climax at its conclusion. The acoustics of Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in a church or cathedral are second-to-none, and your audience is guaranteed to be left stunned by this little-known masterpiece of choral church music.

Offering historical identity fortified by the presence of women belonging to the various areas of creative and intellectual life, this book allows readers to understand greater contexts of their identity. The history of female artists is an indicator of how social identity was erased from the historiography which asserted itself in nineteenth-century Europe. Analysis of the biographical pathways traced here reveals how women in the Middle Ages and beyond have been active protagonists of the arts, received reviews, as well as had an authoritative role as the esteemed and attentive witnesses of the society around them. Reconstruction of social relationships, intellectual and creative production as well as of the life stories of some of Europe’s most important female artists, foregrounds this omission and highlights their extraordinary nature. The different stories contained in this book narrate the lives and works of Hildegard von Bingen, Francesca Caccini, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand, Lou Andreas Salomé and Elke Mascha Blankenburg. By reinforcing the awareness of social and historical origins, the informed reader is better equipped to tackle their futures and build up their personalities.

Herbert Howells composed his Magnificat And Nunc Dimittis evening canticles for St Paul's Cathedral in 1951, going on to become among his most famous and enduring works. These beautiful canticles were composed by a master of setting the Anglican liturgy, and are arranged for SATB Chorus and Organ Accompaniment. These two wonderful works of choral music are characterised by a unique blend of unison harmonies and disparate melodies that highlight each voice perfectly. The lingering notes, crescendos and subtle dynamic changes were composed with the acoustics of that great cathedral in mind, but they also work equally well in any setting.