SKU: HL.14000548
11.5x8.25x0.121 inches.
SKU: HL.14005097
SKU: HL.14005090
SKU: HL.14000545
Work for Organ.
SKU: HL.14005096
SKU: HL.14005087
SKU: HL.14005098
SKU: HL.14005089
SKU: ST.B946
ISBN 9780852499467.
Organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1896 till his death in 1928, as well as composer, choir-trainer, adjudicator and teacher, Sir Herbert Brewer was involved for over three decades with the Three Choirs Festival, and his Memories of Choirs and Cloisters offers a vivid account of the planning and execution of the festivals in that time, those at Gloucester in particular. Though his professional life was spent exclusively in the provinces, his championing of contemporary music brought him into wide contact with composers and other artistic figures both from Britain and the continent, including Robert Bridges, Elgar, Glazunov, Rider Haggard, Parry, Quiller-Couch, Ravel, Saint-Saens and Sibelius (whose Luonnotar he premiered). John Morehen's fine new edition places Brewer's lively and insightful recollections of these and other encounters and connections in context for the modern reader, making the book an important addition to our fuller understanding of a remarkable period in British music. Neither a conventional autobiography nor a diary, but a collection of reminiscences compiled towards the end of his life, Brewer's Memories reveals a scrupulous and astute musician of great integrity, warm-hearted with a devotion to social justice and civic duty, and with a mischievous sense of humour.
SKU: GI.G-R031
ISBN 9780854022755.
Herbert Sumsion was born in Gloucester in 1899, was a chorister in that city, and became an articled pupil of Sir Herbert Brewer, the Cathedral Organist. He later studied at the Royal College of Music before proceeding to organ and teaching posts in or near London. After a short period in America (1926–1928) as Professor of Harmony at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he accepted the appointment of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Gloucester Cathedral on the sudden death of Brewer. He was able to take up his duties just in time to conduct the 1928 Three Choirs Festival, immediately justifying the confidence placed in him by the high standard of his direction and musicianship. Sumsion was honoured with the Lambeth Doctorate of Music in 1947 and awarded the CBE in 1961. He retired from the post at Gloucester Cathedral in 1967 and continued to be active with teaching and composition until shortly before his death in 1995. He had a special sympathy for the works of the English composers stemming from Vaughan Williams and Elgar, and was responsible for bringing works of younger composers to the attention of the British public.Two great English choral works of this century - Herbert Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi and Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality - received their premieres at the 1950 Gloucester Festival. These two composers were particularly close friends of Sumsion. It would follow then that Sumsion’s own compositions are in this same mould, yet there is a very distinct style that endears his music to singers and listeners alike. Church music has benefitted tremendously from his work, for his compositions in this medium have been prolific and wide-ranging. Many of his choral works are published by The Royal School of Church Music.
