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.

[bluestateprommer]

The interviewee this week is I believe Leah Broad, who writes about Howell in her recent book 'Quartet'.

Just finished reading Leah Broad's Quartet, which is an enjoyable read and a good introduction to the four composers, as long as you keep in mind that the book's subtitle ("How Four Women Changed the Musical World") has very little, if any, basis in reality. I obviously missed the CotW series on Dorothy Howell earlier this year. Evidently, this recent recording featured in the series:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/14/dorothy-howell-orchestral-works-album-review-rebecca-miller-bbc-concert-orchestra

[smittims]

I've long collected absurd claims ('The TV show that changed the world') so I had a good chuckle over 'How four women changed the musical world'.

I remember Rob Cowan's favourite : 'Biggest selection of sunglasses in South-East London'.

I know Lamia and Howell's piano concerto of 1923 froma Lyrita set which also includes Lilian Elkington's Through the Mist : a good selection of Carwithen's film music is on Dutton Epoch, including East Anglian Holiday: the film, which is well-worth seeing , is on a BFI DVD of British Transport films. Two of her string quartets (possibly her best work) have been on SOMM.

There's much to enjoy as long as one sets aside the ' forgotten genius' hype, and remembers that much fine music was also written by minor male composers such as Bernard Stevens, Ernest Farrar and Robert Still. .