Herbert Howells: Partsongs

$20.99
Label
SOMM Recordings
Release Date
June 19, 2026
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      Herbert Howells
    • PERFORMER
      Nick Salwey, The Mira Ensemble, Nick Salwey
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      June 19, 2026
    • UPC
      748871072527
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      SOMMCD 0725
    • LABEL
      SOMM Recordings
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Choral
    Works ⌄

    1. The wonderful Derby ram

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    2. Sweet content

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    3. Piping down the valleys wild

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    4. 5 Partsongs, Op. 11: No. 3. A croon

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    5. My master hath a garden

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    6. The Key of the Kingdom

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    7. Sing ivy

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    8. To music bent

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    9. A golden lullaby

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    10. Bunches of grapes

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    11. Pink Almond

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    12. A Christmas Carol

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    13. 5 Partsongs, Op. 11: No. 1. The shepherd

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    14. Spanish lullaby

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    15. Overture

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Performer: Nick Salwey

    16. No. 1. Happy Street

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    17. No. 2. Many Rainbows

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    18. No. 3. The Sea-Side Landlady

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    19. No. 4. Granny sits beside the sea

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    20. No. 5. The Barrel-Organ

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    21. No. 6. A Seaside Lullaby

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    22. No. 7. The Lair on the Cliff

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    23. No. 8. Lindy's Ballet Shoes

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    24. No. 9. The Musical Train

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    25. No. 10. The Open Air

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    26. An old man's lullaby

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    27. The Tinker's Song

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney

    28. Tune thy music

      Composer: Herbert Howells

      Ensemble: The Mira Ensemble

      Performer: Nick Salwey

      Conductor: Tom Edney


SOMM Recordings is proud to present The Mira Ensemble, taking it's name from the Latin word meaning "wonderful" or "admirable" and comprising professional singers from across the UK. The group was founded in 2025 to champion the extensive, yet little known and often-neglected body of music for upper voices. Their debut disc focuses on the upper-voices repertoire by Herbert Howells, and it features entirely premiere recordings that shine a light on a rarely discussed part of his output. The ensemble is directed by Newcastle-born conductor, composer, academic, editor, and orchestrator Tom Edney. They're accompanied by pianist Nick Salwey, who has performed live on BBC Radio 3, ITV, Channel 4, and Classic FM. Nick taught at Oxford, Eton College, and Winchester College, where he was Head of Piano from 2005 to 2025, and where he continues to teach and work as accompanist. Herbert Howells (1892-1983) composed a significant body of lyrical, often pastoral partsongs characterized by rich harmony and expressive text-setting. Early partsongs featured on this disc include The Shepherd, a setting of William Blake; A Croon from an old cradle song; An Old Man's Lullaby by Elizabethan Thomas Dekker; and A Tinker's Song, an anonymous old London song from 1667. Two unison songs from the 1920s-an old rhyme The Wonderful Derby Ram and a Spanish Lullaby-hint at Howells's own childhood singing experiences. A Golden Lullaby is another setting of An Old Man's Lullaby by Dekker, and Howells's different approaches to voicing are striking. My Master Hath a Garden, on an anonymous text, reflects the influence of Gustav Holst, while the old rhyme Sing Ivy evokes some of Holst's folk song arrangements-though it shifts midway to a sound reminiscent of Tudor keyboard music. Howells's interest in dance forms grew from his fascination with English Tudor music, and he adopted a Sarabande in setting a text by the late-Elizabethan Thomas Campion, Tune thy Music. In the early 1930s, Howells dedicated a setting of one of Walter de la Mare's miniatures, Bunches of Grapes, to his two children. In similarly light-hearted vein, Sea Urchins with texts by Gladys Balcomb describes a seaside holiday across ten movements. Two poetic meditations on Elizabeth texts-Sweet Content by Robert Greene and To Music Bent by Campion-also come from this decade. Howells lost his nine-year-old son to polio in 1935, and Piping down the Valleys Wild-William Blake's depiction of a divine child asking the piper to continue to play-is the bittersweet offering of a grieving parent. Howells composed fewer upper-voices partsongs after the Second World War. Featured among these are The Key of the Kingdom, another de la Mare text adapted from an old rhyme; Pink Almond, with a text by the Irish writer Katharine Tynan, in Sarabande form; and the delightful A Christmas Carol, to a text by 17th century writer George Wither, composed on Christmas Day in 1957.