Malcolm Archer: Wells Cathedral Choir - Howells: Choral Music

In 1944 Howells wrote a set of Morning Canticles for King�s College, Cambridge. With the Evening Canticles recorded here coming the following year, the �Coll. Reg.� settings immediately set the benchmark for twentieth-century liturgical composition and led to the composer being besieged by requests from cathedrals and collegiate chapels for other such �custom-built� settings. It was the composer�s innate understanding of the individual characteristics�acoustic, architecture and choral timbre�of each foundation which made these works so successful and popular. This programme includes the Morning Canticles written for St George�s Chapel in Windsor Castle and the Evening Canticles which constitute the �New College Service�.Ever the master of the choral miniature, the Three Carol-Anthems are among Howells�s most perennially popular works, having been recorded and performed across the globe. Several of the other pieces included here are less famous, but all display their composer�s inimitable mastery of form and choral technique.