Howells: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis settings

[Vox Humana]

The Gloria is great although controversially it's not my favourite among Howells settings!

I agree. I like it well enough, but the Coll Reg Gloria has never quite done to me what it seems to do for most others. The St Paul's Glorias on the other hand... wow! There it's not so much a moment as the whole thing, particularly the way Howells engineers the controlled climax, which just keeps building and building right up to the final chord. In the old Willcocks recording (still my favourite) the tenors at the end must be as operatic as they ever got in his choir - spine-tingling!

[Nick Armstrong]

I agree. I like it well enough, but the Coll Reg Gloria has never quite done to me what it seems to do for most others. The St Paul's Glorias on the other hand... wow! There it's not so much a moment as the whole thing, particularly the way Howells engineers the controlled climax, which just keeps building and building right up to the final chord. In the old Willcocks recording (still my favourite) the tenors at the end must be as operatic as they ever got in his choir - spine-tingling!

[Michael C]

At Wells, the Cathedral Voluntary Choir has sung the Worcester service for several years with enjoyment, and later this year we will be learning the St John's (even though I'm a Kingsman )

[Pulcinella]

Just picked up (yes, on a Sunday) my copy of the Dallas Service (the York one arrived a few days ago).
Rather oddly (and surely unhelpfully?) there are NO time signatures, and a fairly frequent change of bar length.
If I were singing it, I think I'd have to write in the number of beats in each bar!

Any other otherwise conventionally set out (if that's a good enough description) piece that dispenses with time signatures that anyone knows of?

[ardcarp]

The only thing that springs immediately to mind is the Bernard Rose responses...including the Our Father. But a time sig is hardly necessary. I'm sure I've come across other pieces, mainly vocal and mainly 16th cent polyphonic where editors do 'irregular barring' without notice. It wouldn't do at all for orchestral players who live and die by their individual parts.

I don't know the Howells Dallas service. But he is rather fond of using the minim as the unit of pulse. Much of Coll Reg Mag and Nunc is 3 minims to a bar, but all changes are clearly marked by time sigs. From memory I think the Gloucester service has a 7/4 thrown in at some point. Maybe he thought (when writing Dallas) that a time sig. would 'get in the way' of a natural flow? But like you, I'd get me pencil out.....

[Pulcinella]

The only thing that springs immediately to mind is the Bernard Rose responses...including the Our Father. But a time sig is hardly necessary. I'm sure I've come across other pieces, mainly vocal and mainly 16th cent poyphonic. It wouldn't do at all for orchestral players who live and die by their individual parts.

I don't know the Howells Dallas service. But he is rather fond of the minim as the unit of pulse. Much of Coll Reg Mag and Nunc is 3 minims to a bar, but all changes are clearly marked by time sigs. From memory I think the Gloucester service has a 7/4 thrown in at some point. Maybe he thought (when writing Dallas) that a time sig. would 'get in the way' of a natural flow? But like you, I'd get me pencil out.....

Yes, of course.