Psalm Prelude (Set 1, No 1) - Herbert Howells. David Briggs at Cathedral of St John the Divine, NYC

Описание: Psalm Prelude (Set 1, No.1) - Herbert Howells (1892-1983). David Briggs at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York

I well remember the one occasion during my 8 years as Organist at Gloucester Cathedral when I conducted an Evensong with nobody in the congregation - it was a Friday night and just the Cathedral Choir, the Precentor were present - along with 2000 angels. There is perhaps no sound which encapsulates both the internal calm and sense of timeless otherworldliness than the Psalm Preludes of Herbert Howells. Howells adored Gloucester Cathedral, having been an Articled Pupil of Sir Herbert Brewer in the 1910’s. His music is so haunting and seems almost to seep out of the stones themselves. The colossal arches of the Norman nave, dating back to 1089, are surely represented in sound by Howells' symmetrical musical structures. Howells didn’t understand the ‘new’ Gloucester organ in 1971, massively different as it was to the lush, purring 4-manual Harrison which occupied the historical cases from 1920 until 1968, but I must say I always rather enjoyed playing his music on it. Seamless crescendos and diminuendos were absolutely possible to achieve, if you added and subtracted the stops in the right order and used the excellent east and west swell boxes intelligently.

A few months ago I recorded the First Psalm Prelude, a longtime favorite of mine, here at St John the Divine, on the Walker Technical Company Organ we are currently using at the cathedral. I think it sounds really quite beautiful on it, bathing luxuriously in the 10-second acoustic. I very much hope you’ll feel nourished by this ravishing and unashamedly passionate music.