Dorothy Howell (1898-1982): 7-11/9/24

[Ein Heldenleben]

I would add Debussy and Fauré to your list.

Numbers of performances don't guarantee a prominent place in history - the same applies to church music. Otherwise Herbert Sumsion, Edward Bairstow and William Harris, for example, would feature more strongly in lists of British 20th-century composers. Dorothy Howell may have painted herself into the same corner by in her later years writing music for the Catholic church. I can't think of anything written for English provincial Catholic churches in the mid-20th century that has got wider exposure even in Church of England performances; you needed to get into the repertoire of Westminster Cathedral to have any success. (Of course a lot of it vanished with the Vatican II reforms.)

yes of course .but dont you think the Debussy pieces are a tiny bit too hard for the under 12’s say ?
Good point re Catholicism though what about Elgar and latterly Macmillan ? I guess theirs is Catholic music for concert performance an entirely different matter.

[mopsus]

yes of course .but dont you think the Debussy pieces are a tiny bit too hard for the under 12’s say ?
Good point re Catholicism though what about Elgar and latterly Macmillan ? I guess theirs is Catholic music for concert performance an entirely different matter.

I carefully selected mid-20th century as my time period (which excludes both of them) and English (which excludes MacMillan). And 'provincial' to exclude George Malcolm and Colin Mawby at Westminster Cathedral. Actually I don't care much for most CofE music written then including the three named composers in my post, whose compositions I have sung countless times, but that is my own personal taste.

Some of Elgar's early Catholic pieces, written for churches where he played the organ, are in the repertoire - I sang a setting of O salutaris Hostia at a service in Bath Abbey a few weeks ago. Macmillan writes for his own parish church in Glasgow as well as for other churches and Cathedrals and for the concert hall, and some of these pieces definitely have had wider circulation, including in Protestant churches and concert programmes.

Dorothy Howell unfortunately doesn't seem to have even tried to find a wider market for her church music, and the Catholic Church had much less use for it after Vatican II, so most of it is still in manuscript.

Add Britten to the list those who wrote for young people.