The most remarkable single collection of English partsongs in the twentieth century, A Garland for the Queen (1953), encompasses Howells’s seldom-performed Inheritance. Both the music and text were commissioned as part of a project to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, serving as a modern counterpart to Thomas Morley’s Triumphs of Oriana (1601), which was composed for Elizabeth I. Howells’s work emphasizes the love and yearning for an idealized England that appears perpetually just beyond our reach. The incessantly flowing melismas are encountered in other works of the period, such as the Missa Sabrinensis (1954) and the St Paul’s Service (1951), while also anticipating Take him, earth, for cherishing (1964). Once again, the influence of the Renaissance is notably present, yet here in a musical language that is quintessentially Howells. In textures that can at times feel as overwhelming as the orchestral writing in Sabrinensis, there remains an intrinsic clarity in the counterpoint, even when it seems on the verge of dissolving into euphoric rhapsody.

from notes by Tom Edney © 2025