Howells: Requiem

[Pulcinella]

The December 2022 issue of BBC MM considers Howells' Requiem in its Building a Library feature.

Hard to disagree with the top choice, I imagine:
Trinity Cambridge/Layton (Hyperion).

The three other 'great recordings' mentioned are:
Gabrieli Consort Singers/McCreesh
St Thomas New York/ Scott
Netherlands Chamber Choir/Alldis

The one to avoid is:
St John's Cambridge/Guest (Nimbus)
[St John's recorded it much better subsequently, under Christopher Robinson, in their Naxos series.]

Who else is a fan of this work?

The article counters the belief as to how and why he wrote it, saying that it was completed (and intended for King's Cambridge) some three years before the tragic death of his son Michael, not as a means of coming to terms with it, though of course much of the music was incorporated into the later Hymnus Paradisi, which did partly serve that purpose.

[Master Jacques]

Who else is a fan of this work?

The article counters the belief as to how and why he wrote it, saying that it was completed (and intended for King's Cambridge) some three years before the tragic death of his son Michael, not as a means of coming to terms with it, though of course much of the music was incorporated into the later Hymnus Paradisi, which did partly serve that purpose.

Several programme notes say this, without giving a source. For example, Barry James Holden's for the Naxos recording (St John's/Robinson) states that "evidence has since emerged that the work was in fact written three years earlier [than Michael's death] in 1933, for Boris Ord and King's College Cambridge." Wikipedia [unsupported by a reference] gives 1932.

I wonder, does the BBC MM article spell out the evidence? And if the dating is correct, it prompts another mystery: if it was written in 1933, why was not delivered and withheld from performance for three years? It is unlikely that Howells would have simply forgotten such an intense piece: or did he feel dissatisfaction with it, only later deciding to (a) revise it, and then (b) incorporate much of it into the Hymnus Paradisi (1938)? The larger work was certainly put together in response to his son's death. Howells certainly felt the Requiem to be deeply associated with his son, as several biographical sources attest.

My theory - worthless, I expect, but here goes! - is that he was commissioned to write it, never got round to it (or only made sketches), and then turned to the idea again in his grief for Michael's death. It seems also to encapsulate grief for the fallen of WW1, based as it is on the pattern of Walford Davies's Short Requiem of 1915.

I find the older Hyperion recording (Corydon Singers/Best) has a certain something which the Layton "remake" lacks, but that may be nostalgia.

[Pulcinella]

I did wonder how conjectural this all was.
I don't have the Naxos liner notes (I've got the box set, which doesn't include them).

The article (by Jeremy Pound, Deputy Editor) simply says:

A fast worker, Howells is believed to have all but finished it within four days. It was intended for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and its choirmaster Boris Ord, but for some reason Howells never sent it, at which point the Requiem's trail goes cold.

Like you, I have a special affection for the earlier Hyperion Corydon Singers version, but I must listen to the Trinity one (still in its shrink wrap; picked up when some neighbours were having a clear out before they moved house!).

[Master Jacques]

I did wonder how conjectural this all was.
I don't have the Naxos liner notes (I've got the box set, which doesn't include them).

The article (by Jeremy Pound, Deputy Editor) simply says:

A fast worker, Howells is believed to have all but finished it within four days. It was intended for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and its choirmaster Boris Ord, but for some reason Howells never sent it, at which point the Requiem's trail goes cold.

Like you, I have a special affection for the earlier Hyperion Corydon Singers version, but I must listen to the Trinity one (still in its shrink wrap; picked up when some neighbours were having a clear out before they moved house!).

Thank you for this extra information. The mystery deepens. Four days, eh?

I see you are another sufferer from Shrink Wrap Syndrome! The Trinity one is fine, but a bit "precious" to be hyper-critical - the old Corydon one is more dramatic, and the sopranos' effort to reach the top of the register only adds to its power, to my ears.

[Simon Biazeck]

On October 13 1932 Howells wrote a long letter to Diana Oldridge. In the third paragraph he writes:

[...] Diana! I've added a complete new short work to my holiday list - a brief sort of 'Requiem' (on the Walford Davies model, but more extended). I began flirting with the idea on Sunday. I finished it yesterday and am copying it out. It's done specially for King's College, Cambridge - otherwise I may not have dreamed of it. There are in it settings of 'Salvator mundi'; '23rd Psalm'; 'Requiem aeternam' (I); 'Requiem aeternam' (II): finally, 'I heard a voice from Heaven'. It's all simple Double-Choir stuff: all unaccompanied. I may or may not publish it - depends. But at the moment I like it - and I didn't write in on my technique! [...]

In Herbert Howells: A Centenary Celebration, Christopher Palmer writes: 'There is no record of Howells sending it to King's, Cambridge, to Boris Ord, or of its being performed there.' (p. 98)

[Master Jacques]

On October 13 1932 Howells wrote a long letter to Diana Oldridge. In the third paragraph he writes:

[...] Diana! I've added a complete new short work to my holiday list - a brief sort of 'Requiem' (on the Walford Davies model, but more extended). I began flirting with the idea on Sunday. I finished it yesterday and am copying it out. It's done specially for King's College, Cambridge - otherwise I may not have dreamed of it. There are in it settings of 'Salvator mundi'; '23rd Psalm'; 'Requiem aeternam' (I); 'Requiem aeternam' (II): finally, 'I heard a voice from Heaven'. It's all simple Double-Choir stuff: all unaccompanied. I may or may not publish it - depends. But at the moment I like it - and I didn't write in on my technique! [...]

In Herbert Howells: A Centenary Celebration, Christopher Palmer writes: 'There is no record of Howells sending it to King's, Cambridge, to Boris Ord, or of its being performed there.' (p. 98)

Thank you very much, Simon. That could hardly be straighter from the horse's mouth.

Interestingly, it suggests that the Requiem did not originally contain Psalm 121 ('I will lift up mine eyes'), which accounts for c.25% of the running time. Nor is there is mention of any soloists, only "simple Double-choir". The "mystery" of why Kings College never received or performed it may be explained by his line, "I may or may not publish it".

If he decided "no" at this early point, it would rather support the idea that he had doubts about its original form and reworked the torso as a therapy, after Michael's death. Perhaps the soloists were also introduced after Michael's death, along with Psalm 121. Perhaps the M/S may offer conclusive evidence.