Herbert Howells

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) was an English composer and teacher perhaps best known for his choral music in the Anglican tradition. His String Quartet No.3 (In Gloucestershire) has a somewhat chequered history: originally finished in 1916 the only copy of the score was left on a train and lost forever! In the 1920s Howells rewrote the work incorporating the themes he could remember from the original but large sections of it had to be created from scratch. Howells was unable to serve in the Great War due to ill health and this quartet provides a fascinating insight into how he reacted to the turmoil and aftermathof the conflict. The title suggests it was inspired by the Cotswold landscape of which he was fond; this is indeed the case but it is haunted by the memories of departed friends with whom the landscape had once been shared.

Herbert Howells was an English composer organist and teacher most famous for his large output of Anglican Church music. However for this reason his secular compositions tend to be unreasonably neglected. Thisedition of the Fantasy String Quartet has set out to change this. The delightful piece of chamber music makes full use of the unique characteristics of String instruments giving all four players equal parts andopportunities to shine separately as well as together as an ensemble. Possibly inspired by Vaughan Williams’ Phantasy Quintet the Fantasy String Quartet requires skilful mastery of their instrument from eachplayer. Performance time is ca. 13 minutes.