• 1100/0000/timp.perc/hp.org/str
  • org/str
  • SATB
  • 33 min
    • 16th March 2025, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA, United States of America
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Programme Note

An English Mass is a concert setting of the ordinary of the Mass in the English translation. Although it concludes with the Gloria as in a Prayerbook Communion service, it was designed for concert use and is dedicated to Harold Darke and the St Michael's Singers. The original scoring was for strings and organ, but a later version with woodwind and timpani is used this evening of this rarely heard work.

Those familiar with the sound of Howells' church music will find the same textures here - long strands of expressive melody supported by rich harmony in thick textures and climaxes of tremendous ecstasy. Like so much of the English choral repertory, the work begins and ends quietly, achieving maximum intensity at various points in between.

Scores

Discography

Howells: Cello Concerto & An English Mass

Howells: Cello Concerto & An English Mass
  • Label
    Kings College
  • Catalogue Number
    KGS0032
  • Conductor
    Christopher Seaman / Ben Parry
  • Ensemble
    Choir of King's College Cambridge / King's Voices / Britten Sinfonia
  • Soloist
    Stephen Cleobury, organ
  • Released
    2019