This simple setting was composed within the space of an hour. In 1965 Christopher Eaton Smith was a composition pupil of Howells at the Royal College of Music. One day, Smith took a setting he had made of these well-known words to a lesson and Howells within the time available, sketched out how he would have approached the text and handed the manuscript to his pupil for his own instruction. Recently released for publication, this is a straightforward and undemanding piece but no less valuable for being a chipping from the master’s workbench.

from notes by Paul Andrews © 2010