Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Sine nomine & other secular choral works
Hilary Cronin (soprano); Ruairi Bowen (tenor)
Charlie Lovell-Jones (violin); Iain Farrington (piano)
Ikon/David Hill
rec. 2024, St George’s, Headstone, Harrow, UK
Texts included
Hyperion CDA68476 [66]

Herbert Howells’ liturgical music has rightly become an indispensable part of the Anglican repertoire – though some of his anthems and Canticles are more favoured than others – and that’s reflected on CD. However, I don’t think his secular choral music is quite so well known. Though some of his secular pieces have appeared on disc – I first got to know some of them thanks to various fine recordings by Paul Spicer and the Finzi Singers – I can’t readily recall an album devoted exclusively to this part of Howells’ output. So, this new disc from Ikon and David Hill is very timely and welcome. 

Two of the items on David Hill’s programme are presented in new arrangements by Iain Farrington.  In general, Howells’ solo songs are too little known, but King David is, rightly, an exception; in my opinion, it is one of the select number of truly great English songs by any composer. I must admit, I was somewhat thoughtful when I saw that Farrington has arranged it for SATB divisi with piano, but the reimagining of the song works well. I’ve deliberately used the word reimagining because Farrington’s work has changed the nature of Howells’ original from the musing of a single narrating voice. He’s also enriched the vocal textures; the arrangement is much more than a single melodic line with other voice parts filling in the harmonies underneath. So far as I can tell, the original piano part has been preserved.  Farrington’s sensitive work has enabled me to hear this great song in a new way.

King David may be well known but the same can scarcely be said for Sine nomine. This work was commissioned, at the instigation of Elgar, for the 1922 Three Choirs Festival, which was held that year in Gloucester. Presented with such an opportunity, Howells composed a piece lasting just over twelve minutes and scored, lavishly, for soprano and tenor soloists, chorus and a large orchestra. All the vocal parts are wordless. After this 1922 premiere, Sine nomine sank without trace and I think I’m correct in saying that a revival at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival of 1992 – a concert which I attended – was only the second performance of the work. Ten years later, the work was recorded for the first time. So far as I know, that recording is no longer available; happily, though, a second recording, made in 2013 and conducted by David Hill is still in the catalogue. When I reviewed that excellent recording, I commented that “The opening and closing sections are pastel and pastoral in feel and the writing for the soloists in particular shows that even at this relatively young age – he was thirty years old – Howells was able to express ecstasy in his writing.” I very deliberately refrained from listening to the original version prior to auditioning Iain Farrington’s new arrangement, which preserves the vocal parts unaltered (so far as I can tell) and which substitutes for the orchestral scoring a solo violin and piano. I should say at once that I think the decision to include a solo violin is inspired: it has two benefits; firstly, in passages during the rhapsodic opening and close, the violin often intertwines with the vocal soloists and, in effect, we have three carolling soloists; secondly, in the extended central section (from just before 4:00), which is more agitated and, in the original, is dominated by the orchestra, it’s good to have the extra colouring of the violin as well as the piano. In the orchestral version there is some use of a solo violin but to nowhere near the same extent as in the Farrington version. Of course, in this new arrangement you lose the wide variety of colours in the orchestral score, as I reminded myself by subsequently playing David Hill’s earlier recording. However, Farrington sheds new light on the score and makes it more intimate in scale. I think it works well – and especially in this sensitive performance – and if this chamber version gives more people the opportunity to hear this beautiful score, then I’m all in favour. Here, Hilary Cronin and Ruairi Bowen are excellent soloists and the contributions of violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones and Iain Farrington himself at the piano are equally fine. The choir itself has relatively little to do – the choir doesn’t begin to sing until 9:15 and even then, they are required to sing quietly; Ikon gently enrich the texture.

All the other pieces are performed as Howells wrote them. Having said that, A Maid Peerless was originally scored for SSAA and orchestra; the composer’s 1951 revision, heard here, replaces the orchestral part with a piano. In his notes, Tom Edney references the “intensity and rapture” of this piece; the fresh voices of Ikon really convey this. A Maid Peerless is a lovely composition, here superbly performed. Walking in the Snow is for unaccompanied SATB voices. Dating from 1950, the music has the intense chromatic harmonies which are so characteristic of Howells’ mature style. There’s a great freedom of movement to the music – I haven’t a clue what the time signature is (there are probably several) – and tremendous flexibility. It needs an expert choir to bring it off; of course, Ikon are entirely up to the challenge. A little later comes another example of the composer’s complex, harmonic writing.  Inheritance was Howells’ contribution to the 1953 collection A Garland for the Queen, which brought together individual choral pieces by leading British composers to celebrate the start of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Howells set lines by one of his favourite poets, Walter de la Mare, for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir. I’m afraid that I think Howells over-egged the pudding here; so complex are the vocal lines and textures and so rich are the harmonies that even when one has a choir as skilled as Ikon the words are far from easy to follow. Tom Edney tells us that the piece is seldom performed; frankly, I can understand that, because I suspect that few choirs would wish to devote the necessary amount of rehearsal time to master this short piece.

One of the virtues of this programme is that the ordering of the pieces is such that more than once we are offered excellent contrasts. So, for example, Inheritance is followed by The Scribe, another de la Mare setting which Howells made in 1957 as a tribute to Vaughan Williams. This is for unaccompanied SATB choir with divisions. The music is more straightforward than was the case in Inheritance, yet The Scribe is no less accomplished. I find it is much easier to appreciate, both as music per se and as a response to the words. As I listened, I was put in mind of ‘The Cloud-Capp’d Towers’, the second of VW’s masterly Three Shakespeare Songs (1951). Howells’ music is very different from VW’s writing in that wonderful song yet both settings seem to me to breathe the same rarified air.

Simpler still in design is A New Year Carol for SS and piano. The voices sing in unison for much of the time, which means that when the writing divides into two parts the change is all the more striking. In the second stanza there’s a discreet but very effective piano descant to the vocal line. On the surface, this is an uncomplicated setting. certainly, by comparison with the two preceding items, but it’s still a clever piece; it’s also most attractive.

I referred to the intelligent use of contrasts within the programme. Immediately after Walking in the Snow, which is an excellent example of Howells’ mature stye. David Hill gives us Good Counsel, a Chaucer setting from 1928. This is for unison upper vices with piano. When compared with the preceding item, Good Counsel might appear to be something and nothing; that would be a mistake. True, the piece is more robust and, dare I say, a bit “foursquare” by comparison, but note that Howells sets each of Chaucer’s two stanzas to a long-legged, very pleasing melodic line. This piece strikes me as a very sophisticated example of the genre of unison songs for adults or even children which used to give such pleasure in those days.

The latest piece on the programme is The summer is coming (1964). This was composed in the year following Take him earth, for cherishing. The melodic lines are long and sinuous while the harmonies are rich and complex. As a result, the setting is not easy to grasp at first, but it’s a rewarding piece. At the other end of Howells’ career are the last two pieces on the programme. Tom Edney tells us that Before me careless lying for SSATB choir was composed on Christmas Day, 1918; it was dedicated the R R Terry, the Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral. It may well be that Howells intended this piece as a homage to the masters of English madrigal tradition; it is certainly worthy of that tradition. I admire not just the liveliness of the outer sections but also the warm harmonies of the piece’s slower middle section. In youth is pleasure, also for SSATB, is a little earlier, dating from 1915. Tom Edney says that this little piece “could be mistakenly viewed as a pastiche or a compositional exercise in counterpoint rather than a serious composition that emulates the Renaissance music in which Howells was immersed at that time”. All I’d add to that wise comment is that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.  In any case, this setting is a most accomplished piece of writing and thoroughly enjoyable to hear.

This is a very fine disc indeed. David Hill and Ikon have shone a welcome light on an underappreciated part of Herbert Howells’ output. Ikon is a small professional choir, here comprising 6/4/4/6 – an additional soprano takes part in some of the items. Their singing is polished, full of vitality and the ensemble is expertly balanced. In David Hill they couldn’t have a better guide to this repertoire. In summary, the performances are ideal.

The performances have been recorded most sympathetically by engineer Deborah Spanton and producer Andrew Walton. Tom Edney’s notes are most helpful.

If you love Howells’ music but are less familiar with his secular choral pieces you will find this CD very rewarding indeed.

John Quinn  

Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free

Contents
King David (1919) (arr. Iain Farrington)
A Maid Peerless (1931, rev. 1951)
Walking in the Snow (1950)
Good Counsel (1928)
Inheritance (1953)
The Scribe (1957)
A New Year Carol (1939)
Sine nomine ‘A Phantasy’, op.37 (1922) (arr. Iain Farrington)
The summer is coming (1964)
Irish Wren Song (1924)
The Shadows (1923)
Creep afore ye gang (1923)
Before me careless lying (1918)
In youth is pleasure (1915)