Chamber Music Journal - Cobbettassociation.org

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(Continued from page 9)
over three years (1917-
1920) restored him to
health. During this time
he was supported by the
Carnegie Trust, who
hired him as an editor of
Tudor manuscripts. This
enforced leisure allowed
him to develop his mature
style and be very
productive. Most of his
chamber music dates
from this period
Herbert Howells: Piano Quartet Op.21, 3rd Movement
Several different influences are incorporated in his music. The most important is modal counterpoint derived from Tudor models.
Elgar and Vaughan Williams had a great impact on him. Although h admired Ravel and French sensuous harmonies, he remained
rooted in and influenced by the English countryside. After this early period of productivity in chamber music, and somewhat discouraged
by the criticism of his first two major orchestral commissions, he immersed himself in teaching and produced few substantial
works.Although affected by the human suffering and waste of World War I, it was a personal tragedy in 1935, the death of his 9
year old son from polio, which reawakened his creativity. From 1936 to 1962 he taught at St. Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith,
where he succeeded Holst. In 1937 he was awarded a doctorate at Oxford and later awarded honorary degrees at Cambridge and St.
John’s. In 1950 he became a professor at London University
Howells’ Chamber Music Compositions
His Fantasy String Quartet, Op. 25, written
in 1916, is utilizes the Fantasy, a
Elizabethan-Jacobean device, to knit together
in one piece several themes in different
tempi and moods, popularized by
the composition competitions of W.W. H.
Cobbett (1847-1937). It won a prize in
1917.
Howell’s Phantasy Quintet for clarinet
and string quartet, Op. 31, is another work
in this style. Composed in 1919, it won a
Carnegie award. He described the quintet
as having ‘a mystic quality’ which pervades
it from the initial theme. A contrasting,
tender falling theme is later introduced
by the clarinet. A short subsidiary
idea arises in puckish merriment, but
fades rapidly. Polyrhythms abound in a
more vigorous section, and then the music
gradually softens to end with a serene
beauty. An example from the slow movement,
Lento, is given at the top of the next
page.
In Gloucestershire, his third string quartet,
is difficult to date. The first version
was lost on a train. A second version,
completed in the 1920’s, also disappeared,
but was reconstructed in the
1960’s from a set of parts. Even when it
was first performed is a mystery, probably
not until after 1930