Herbert Howells's choral music is marked by striking sensuality and apparent freedom, rather than formality or traditionalism.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Howells and Vaughan Williams shared an 'intuitive affinity', particularly in their fascination with modal writing.
Composer Biography
Charles Villiers Stanford, Herbert Howells's composition teacher at the Royal College of Music, described Howells as his 'son in music'.
Performer Biography
The Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford, has recorded for film and appears on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.
Composition History
David Bednall's settings of Marian antiphon texts were commissioned for this project to complement two Howells works from 1916.
Composition History
John Scott's setting of 'Behold, O God our defender' for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002 was a tribute to Herbert Howells's 1953 Coronation setting of the same text.
Compositional Technique
Nico Muhly's setting of 'Like as the hart' inverts Howells's approach, featuring massive elongated harmonies that drag melodic fragments behind them.
