Composer: Herbert Howells

From HymnsWithoutWords

Biography

Herbet Howells (1892 – 1983) was an English Composer and Organist. He was born in Lydney, Gloucestershire, the youngest of six children born to Oliver and Elizabeth Howells. His father was an amateur organist, and Herbert himself showed early musical promise. He studied first with Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral, as an articled pupil alongside Ivor Novello and Ivor Gurney, the celebrated English songwriter and poet, with whom he became great friends. A September 1910 concert in Gloucester Cathedral included the premiere of Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by the yet little-known Ralph Vaughan Williams. Howells not only made the composer's personal acquaintance that evening, but the piece profoundly moved him. Later he studied at the Royal College of Music (RCM) under Charles Villiers Stanford, and Hubert Parry and Charles Wood.

He was briefly assistant organist at Salisbury Cathedral in 1917, though his severe illness cut this appointment short. Friends then arranged for a grant from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, whereunder Howells would assist Richard Runciman Terry in editing the voluminous Latin Tudor repertoire that he and his choir were reviving at Westminster Cathedral. Although they were envisioning an undemanding sinecure, Howells took great interest in this work, absorbing the English Renaissance style which he loved and would evoke in his own, and continued it until joining the faculty of the RCM in 1920. During World War II, he served as acting organist of St John's College, Cambridge.

In later life Howells was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1972. He died in 1983 in London and his ashes reside in Westminster Abbey.

His daughter Ursula (1922 - 2005) was an actress and he was godfather to the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.