Sing Lullaby - A Carol-Anthem by Herbert Howells
In 1916 Herbert Howells had been diagnosed with Graves’ disease and
was given only a short time to live. Radium injections, which were then an
advanced medical procedure, were largely successful in providing a cure; however
the treatment left the composer in a weakened state. His first major appointment
as sub-organist at Salisbury Cathedral was cut short due to the stress of
travel and this treatment. During his long convalescence between 1917 and
1920, Howells was employed by the Carnegie Trust as an editor of Tudor manuscripts,
assisting R.R. Terry of Westminster Cathedral. During this period he composed
a considerable corpus of orchestral and chamber music. These include Puck’s
Minuet, Merry Eye and the Elegy, Op.15, for viola, string
quartet and string orchestra. In 1918 he composed the second and third Rhapsodies
for organ. The two Violin Sonatas also date from this time. Howells wrote
three important choral works during these years: the cantata Sir Patrick
Spens for baritone, chorus and orchestra, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis
in G major and the Three Carol-Anthems.
The first carol-anthem was ‘Here is the Little Door’ (1918) to
a text by Francis Chesterton, the wife of the poet and writer G.K. Chesterton.
In 1919 Howells composed ‘A Spotless Rose’ to words from an anonymous
14th century carol. The present ‘Sing Lullaby’ was
set to words by F.W. Harvey during 1920.
We are lucky to possess a short introduction by the composer about ‘Sing
Lullaby’: they were written for the Argo LP sleeve-notes (RG507 Herbert
Howells Church Music) - ‘This was the third in the set. Here too a poet
found the verses for me. F.W. Harvey, the Gloucestershire poet, friend of
Ivor Gurney had written and published the poem only a short time before this
setting was made.’ (Palmer, 1992)
Frederick William Harvey was born in Hartpury in Gloucestershire in 1888.
He was educated at the King’s School in Gloucester and then at Rossall
School on the Lancashire coast. During this period he formed close friendships
with the composer/poet Ivor Gurney and with Herbert Howells. Prior to the
Great War, Harvey began training for the legal profession. However, in 1914
he volunteered for the Gloucestershire Regiment. He served in France, was
promoted to Lance-Corporal and was awarded the DCM. After officer training,
he was again posted to France where he was captured whilst operating behind
the German lines. Harvey was held in a prisoner-of-war camp until after the
Armistice.
After the war he returned to the legal practice where he worked largely as
a defence solicitor. However, this was not financially secure and he sold
the practice in the 1930s. The remainder of his life was spent in a Bohemian
manner and he was much involved in the promotion of his beloved Forest of
Dean and Gloucestershire. He died whilst living at Yorkley in 1957. Harvey
wrote a considerable quantity of poetry which was mainly published between
1916 and 1926. His most famous poem is ‘Ducks’ (From troubles
of the world/I turn to ducks). Some of the poet’s work was set by Ivor
Gurney, Herbert Brewer and Herbert Howells.
Sing lullaby, sing lullaby,
While snow doth softly [gently] fall,
Sing lullaby to Jesus
Born in an oxen-stall.
Sing lullaby to Jesus,
Born now in Bethlehem,
The naked blackthorn’s growing
To weave His diadem.
Sing lullaby, sing lullaby
While thickly snow doth fall,
Sing lullaby to Jesus
The Saviour of all.
[F.W. Harvey (1888-1957)]
‘Sing Lullaby’ was first published in Harvey’s volume Farewell
in 1921. Interestingly, it is not included in the Collected Poems of F.W
Harvey (1983) or in Anthony Boden’s F.W Harvey Soldier, Poet
(1988, 1999). There is a significant textual variation in the first stanza:
Howells has set the line, ‘While snow doth gently fall’
whereas the published text is ‘While snow doth softly fall.’
Both words are equally effective as the idea is to counterpoise this ‘gentle’
image with that of ‘thickly falling’ in the final verse. It is
possible that Howells’ ‘setting’ reflects the poet’s
original thought and that it was revised by Harvey for publication in the
book.
The carol was dedicated to Harry Stevens-Davis. Davis was a City of London
banker who became a pupil of Herbert Howells. He was one-time organist of
Beaconsfield Parish Church. In 1920, the carol was published by Stainer &
Bell in the Church Choir Library series No.228.
‘Sing Lullaby’ is a four-part ‘a cappella’ setting
for mixed chorus. The key structure is largely modal, with the prevailing
tonality being F Dorian. Jeffrey Shawn Wilson (1996) has noted how the carol
begins with ‘the soft lulling of voices in a seamless flowing texture
in which bar lines appear to be unnecessary.’ It is a perfect musical
analogy to the text ‘Sing lullaby, / While snow doth gently fall.’
The effect is created by parallel second inversion chords with the occasional
root position triad for variety. When the bass part enters it is independent
of this flowing harmony and creates a good melodic phrase. This tune is then
taken up by the sopranos.
The second stanza is treated very differently to the opening gentle lullaby.
The words of this section allude to the Crucifixion - ‘The naked blackthorn’s
growing/To weave His diadem’. This is presented in chordal harmony with
little in the way of passing notes. Howells has used some very complex modulations
which add to the unsettling feel of this part of the carol. However, the mood
of the opening pages returns with the third stanza. Once again the basses
and then the sopranos provide the tune whilst the other parts sing flowing
‘lullabies’’. Shawn Wilson (1996) notes that the ‘soporific
snow’ which characterised the opening verse and ‘symbolized the
sleeping of a newborn baby’ now represents ‘the completion of
the acts required for the salvation of the world, that is, the death and resurrection
of Christ.’
In his thesis ‘The Music of Herbert Howells,’ Peter John Hodgson
quotes the musicologist and composer Marion Scott. Writing in The Music
Bulletin in May 1924 she suggested that: - ‘The three carol anthems
... are singularly lovely, and afford examples of Howells’ command of
flexible rhythm and sensitive beauty of melodic line. In the simple, highly
finished design of ‘A Spotless Rose’ there is something indeed
difficult to describe in words, but which, when heard or seen upon the pages
of his score, raises insistent sense of kinship with the designs of Celtic
art during its great period hundreds of years ago.’ It is a sentiment
which equally applies to ‘Sing Lullaby’.
I asked the musicologist Pamela Blevins what Scott meant by her reference
to ‘Celtic art’. She referred me to her book Ivor Gurney and
Marion Scott (2008). In her Introduction to Herbert Howells (in
manuscript) Scott had noted that Howells’ music was influenced by both
his Celtic heritage and the landscape of Gloucestershire - ‘He came
naturally by an inheritance of beauty, hill, sky, cloud, river ‘blossomy
plain.’ Scott continued by suggesting that ‘[A]ll these things
are Gloucestershire and behind them one glimpses the successions of centuries
flowing down from the mists of Celtic times in an almost unruffled and ever-widening
intellectual tide. She further observed that Howells had an ‘extraordinary
affinity with the Latin, the Celtic type of design towards which he tends
when embellishing a passage, his innate sympathy with Folk Song, his strong
natural attachment to the countryside, particularly under its pastoral aspects,
his spontaneous intimacy with Tudor thought in music, all these can be related
to each other and to him as a son of Gloucester.’
Patrick Russill (liner notes CHAN 9458) has suggested that the Carol-Anthems
as a group were the first of Howells’ choral works to ‘consistently
display the same level of aural imagination and technical refinement as his
chamber music and songs of the same period ...’ It is certainly the
case that Howells has managed to create an almost ‘impressionistic’
mood in ‘Sing Lullaby’ that transcends and elaborates its Christian
origins.
John France
December 2012
Bibliography
Blevins, Pamela, Ivor Gurney & Marion Scott: Song of Pain and
Beauty (Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2008)
Boden, Anthony: F.W. Harvey - Soldier, Poet (Stroud, Alan Sutton Publishing
Limited, 1988, 1999)
F.W. Harvey: Collected Poems (Coleford, The Forest Bookshop, 1983)
F.W. Harvey: Farewell (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, LTD., 1921)
Hodgson, Peter John: The Music of Herbert Howells (Diss. University
of Colorado, 1970)
Palmer, Christopher: Herbert Howells - A Centenary Celebration (London,
Thames Publishing, 1992)
Scott, Marion: Introduction: XVII Herbert Howells, The Music Bulletin
VI (May, 1924), 142
Spicer, Paul: Herbert Howells (Bridgend, Seren, 1998)
Wilson, Jeffrey Shawn: The Anthems of Herbert Howells 1892-1983 (Diss.
University of Illinois, 1996)
Selected Discography
Herbert Howells Choral Music Hyperion CDA67494
Adeste fideles Christmas Music from Westminster Cathedral Hyperion
CDA66668
Howells Choral Works Chandos CHAN9458
A Winter’s Light Naxos: 8573030
YouTube The Choir of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York
with James Kennerley, Organist and Music Director.