Howells Requiem: 13 November

Sunday 13 November, 6:30pm
Evening Service for Remembrance Sunday
The King Charles Singers

Herbert Howells’ Requiem is a short work, composed in 1932 or 1933. Howells used elements of it for his Hymnus Paradisi, a much larger-scale work which he wrote in response to the death of his son Michael, aged nine, in 1935; but the Requiem itself remained unpublished until 1980, three years before the composer’s own death. The music and the choice of texts express a sense of deep sense of loss as well as hope. The climactic moments occur at ‘lux perpetua’. In the third movement, the words shimmer in chord clusters like light through stained glass. Then, in the fifth movement, the mood of solemnity is broken by a bright declamation, leading to a sense of utter peace in the final movement.

This is a church service and not a concert, but followers of Music at King Charles may be interested in attending. There is no charge for entry.