Howells Requiem

 Day 187

Herbert Howells Requiem 

Choir of St John’s College Cambridge

Christopher Robinson

I’ve mentioned before here that I never sang in a church/cathedral choir so there is a whole genre of music that I know very little about. Howells was predominantly a composer of church music so I don’t recall ever having heard any of this music. This piece has an interesting history. It was written in 1932 for unaccompanied choir but much of the music was re-used in Howell’s Hymnus Paradisi and the original was not performed or published in the 1980s.

Unlike all of the Requiems this week this one is in English and not Latin. It includes some psalm settings as well as parts of the traditional text of the Requiem mass. The music is tonal but highly chromatic. At times I found the harmony a bit overheated but generally I found the work mellifluous and indeed at times rather moving. I can’t imagine how choirs can sing such complex music and still keep up to pitch. Being an orchestral musician is much easier.

This is the last of this series of Requiems - it has been an interesting exploration across many centuries and musical styles. The next topic will be  quite different - American experimental music from the first half of the 20th century.