Howells Hymnus Paradisi is the major choral work which I had not sung for the longest time. I did it as a student, but never since then, although I have twice sung Howells’ Requiem, which is the source of some of the material. It formed the second half of Gloucester Choral Society’s 175th anniversary concert, postponed from May 2020.
Memorial to Ivor Gurney, Gloucester Cathedral
The first part of the concert featured Emma Johnson playing Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto before we sang The Trumpet by Ivor Gurney. This had been given an orchestration of Gurney’s dense piano accompaniment. The words are hard to take at face value – are they really anti-war or even about war at all? Gurney’s music starts and ends in a straightforward Edwardian part-song manner, enclosing a much more chromatic central section.
So how much of the Hymnus Paradisi did I remember? Well, not really all that much but I should put in some disclaimers. There are a number of false friends if you rely on the Requiem: changed note values, different underlay and redistributed parts. One particularly juicy 2nd soprano part is taken away and given to the tenor soloist, for example. And when I did it all that time ago I was singing semi-chorus and probably 1st soprano rather than 2nd, so a lot of the notes would have been different. Also I have to be honest and say that I probably didn’t learn the notes very thoroughly first time round. It was an ambitious work for an unauditioned, student-conducted choir to attempt, and I recall the performance only just holding together at times!
Howells window, Gloucester Cathedral. The rightmost lancet contains a quotation from the Hymnus Paradisi
But there were some bits that came back, and having sung lots of Howells’ other pieces stood me in good stead for understanding his favourite harmonies and chord progressions. Our orchestra was the British Sinfonietta with Rebecca Hardwick and Michael Bell.
When Howells died and his Requiem was discovered, it was said that this was the personal composition associated with the loss of his son Michael and the Hymnus Paradisi was a more general work for public consumption. I’m not at all sure it follows that it is less personal because it is on a larger scale, and both what we now know about the history behind the Requiem and Howells’ initial reluctance to have the Hymnus Paradisi performed suggest otherwise. The greater forces enable it to contain some moments of real exaltation in the Sanctus and the final movement, but the end of the work still has an ambiguous, unresolved feeling.