IDAGIO | Howells: Requiem – Vaughan Williams: Mass in G Minor 00602448806024

Featuring

Mary Seers
Michael Chance
Philip Salmon
Jonathan Best
Matthew Best
Thomas Trotter

Janet Coxwell
Corydon Singers
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Herbert Howells

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Composition History

Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor was inspired by and dedicated to Gustav Holst and his Whitsuntide Singers, and Sir Richard Runciman Terry's Westminster Cathedral Choir.

Composition History

Herbert Howells's a cappella Requiem of 1936 was a precursor to his more famous Hymnus Paradisi and was inspired by the tragic death of his nine-year-old son, Michael Kendrick Howells, in 1935.

Notable Performances

The first liturgical performance of Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor was given by Sir Richard Runciman Terry, conductor of Westminster Cathedral Choir, on March 12, 1923.

Composer Biography

Herbert Howells, one of the composers on this album, decided to become a composer after hearing Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis in 1910.

Compositional Technique

Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor employs clearly defined imitative entries for voices, melodic shapes derived from plainchant, and modal harmonies, while also incorporating English folksong and parallel harmonies.

Composition History

Howells's Requiem was only reassembled from manuscript and released for performance and publication in 1980, with the help of Joan Littlejohn, despite being composed in 1936.

Composition History

Vaughan Williams composed his Te Deum in G major for the enthronement of Dr. C.G. Lang as Archbishop of Canterbury, which was first performed in Canterbury Cathedral in 1928.