Talk:Herbert Howells

Old version of article

I've amended the information on Howells' religious views and the performance of Hymnus Paradisi based on information in Spicer. Wilus 11:35, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I slightly altered the area regarding the reception of Howells' Piano Concerto #2. The cold reception did not completely muffle his compositions, as we can see by the release dates of his compositions in the List of compositions by Herbert Howells. It was just that none of these works, besides Lambert's Clavichord, were significant works of any stature:

In his twenties and thirties his compositional output focussed chiefly on orchestral and chamber music, including two piano concertos. The hostile reception given to the second of these in 1925 largely silenced Howells' compositional activities for almost ten years. Culveyhouse 10:35, 10 Feb 2007 (UTC)

Palmer (1992) (pp. 16-17) substantiates Parry, then Director of the RCM, as an important mentor even if not formally a teacher of Howells. Paul Emmons 07:52, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Palmer re radium treatment: "At that time there was no known cure, and a leading heart specialist asked him if he would be willing to act as a guinea pig for radium treatment, then untried. For two years he went twice a week to St Thomas's Hospital for radium injections in the neck." (p.22)Paul Emmons 17:06, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Isn't it superfluous (as well as imprecise) to say that Howells lived for another 70 years after the Radium treatment in 1915? Apart from the fact that it was only 68 years, we know his dates. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.7.53.2 (talk) 19:04, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Rewrite

As the article had got rather bitty and repetitive I've done an almost total rewrite. There's more to be said of course, and it could do with a section on Howells' musical style and importance. I may come back and add that when I can get hold of the sources, unless anyone else does it in the meantime. Wilus (talk) 23:28, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Michael Howells' death

As the notion that Michael Howells died of spinal meningitis is extremely widespread I thought I should justify why it's relegated to a footnote in the article. The chief sources on Howells are the biography by Paul Spicer, the Centenary Celebration by Christopher Palmer, the article in the Oxford DNB, again by Spicer, and the article in Grove by Paul Andrews (all cited in the References section of the article). These are all highly authoritative sources written by leading experts on Howells and they all agree that the boy died of polio. There are detailed accounts of this traumatic event in the books by Spicer and Palmer which leave little room for doubt. As if that wasn't enough, there is this interview with Howells from 1971, in which we have it from his own mouth - and he would know. Now, Palmer does muddy the waters in the first chapter of the Celebration, when on p. 88 he makes a passing reference to Michael's death - from spinal meningitis! However when he comes to deal with the death in detail in the next chapter he is quite clear - polio was diagnosed on the patient's arrival in London, and the only way the boy could have lived was as "a prisoner in an iron lung."

I haven't yet identified where the notion of meningitis originates. There is an earlier book by Palmer (1978) which I haven't yet read, and it could be in that. But I don't think there's really any doubt, given the consensus outlined above, that Michael Howells died of polio. Wilus (talk) 23:28, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

I've just found this interesting and touching article by a doctor and polio survivor, which gives further information from a medical viewpoint. Wilus (talk) 14:12, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

Date of the Requiem

While I'm clearing up ambiguities I'll write a little about the date of the Requiem. This is still often said to have been composed in 1936, and the Novello edition of the score still states as much on the back of the title page (or did when I bought my copy around 2002). The implication is that it was written as a response to Michael's death, and this is still sometimes stated as fact in programme notes. The Palmer and Spicer books however make it quite clear that it was written in its entirety over a few days in 1932 with a view to performance in King's College and quote Howells' letters at that time in which he refers to its composition. It would be interesting to learn how it came to be released and published in Howells' last years, and how the error in date came about. My hunch is that Howells, in his late eighties and becoming a little vague as Spicer's biography makes clear, had simply forgotten when and why he wrote it. Wilus (talk) 23:28, 29 November 2011 (UTC)