USA Choral Journal
Choral Journal March 1999 (USA)
PAUL SPICER, a British choral director and teacher, is one of the world's foremost authorities on the life and music of Herbert Howells (1892- 1983). His just-published Howells biography is a long-overdue examination of a composcr best known for his English cathedral music. As such, it compliments Christopher Palmer's Herbert Howells: A Celebration (1996, Thames Publishing), a documentary study now in its second edition.
While Spiccr's work has not the definitive proportions of a major study, it is an appropriate work at this date, fifteen years after the composer's death, with just the nascence of hindsight to put Howells into perspective. Spicer's work is concise, superbly written, fulfilling, and enjoyable, with enough detail and nuance about Howells to bring his personality to life. Herbert Howells is a labor of love from a sympathetic biographer. This authoritative account of the life and work of Howells is an important contribution.
Howells is presented as a complex man of tremendous energy, enthusiasm, ego, and insecurity. His personality is illuminated through various means: excerpts from his letters and diaries, quotations from various interviews Spicer conducted with those who knew Howells during his lifetime, brief snippets from contemporary concert reviews, articles, and transcripts of BBC radio concerts and programs. A further wealth of contemporaneous evidence is included, all admirably woven into the fabric of Spicer’s narrative.
Spicer points out that Howells kept a diary throughout most of his adult life. The diaries, small black books chocked with notations in Howells’s careful script, are full of name-dropping, and incidents in Howells’s personal life. These diaries are Spicer’s principal primary source. Recollections of Howells’s surviving duaghter, Ursula, are significant additions.
Howells’s life is traced chronologically from his childhood in rural Gloucestershire to London and the Royal College of Music, then through his professional life as teacher of composition at the same school, as well as posts at St John’s College, Cambridge, and the St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. Chapters are organized around major milestones in Howells’s life, and the entire arrangement brings into focus the various peaks and valleys of the composers’ artistic journey. His relationships with fellow composers such as Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Gurney are important elements in setting time and place in the narrative.
Three themes emerge as Spicer writes of Howells. The first major theme, and the least tangible, is of Howells as a Celtic musician. Spicer paints Howells as a composer who draws on a well of Celtic spirituality and mysticism. After discussing salient points from Davies and Bowie’s Celtic Christian Spirituality (1995), Spicer says: The dual significance of this in relation to Howells as a Celt is, first, the importance of place and its (originally) religious relationship with the people; and second, the artistic characteristic that is experimental, allowing foreign influence, but at the same time defining the race and giving it identity (p12). Over and over throughout his book, Spicer maintains (rightly) that Howells was influenced by the people he met and the places for which he was writing. Spicer also says that Howells “culled his language form a rich variety of sources” (p12) and throughout the book repeatedly proves his point.
The Celtic aspects of Howells’s humanity, while successfully expounded, are not as evident as his sure style and superior ability as a composer. Spicer recounts many anecdotes, such as Howells writing a song or correcting a proof in the midst of activity that would distract most others. He cogently makes the case for Howells’s facility in composing for instruments and voices alike. (Spicer discusses Howells’s instrumental works, pieces not commonly known in the 1990s as Howells’s choral works for the Anglican church, with surety and enthusiasm). A corollory to Howells the great musician regards Howells’s vanity and ‘thin skin’. Spicer does not make overt attempts to dramatize this points; it is evident nevertheless. The reader is pointed to Howells’s love (nned/) for name-dropping, to his all-consuming attraction to women, and to his social-climbing. Spicer notes too the number of Howells’s works that were withdrawn after mediocre or poor reviews, or even after less-than-encouraging words from a fellow composer.
Certainly the clearest theme is that of Michael, Howells’s son. Michael died of polio in 1935, and his loss clouds and colors the remainder of Howells’s life – his relationships with others, his choice of texts for music, his choice of solo instruments, his daily life, and travel plans. Throughout the book, mention of Michael is made with tremendous frequency, showing how his presence constantly stays with the great composer.
One of the successes in this book is Spicer’s ability to take an incident in Howells’s life and use it as the basis for further discussion of the composer’s personality. Rather than bombard the reader with reams of psychological evaluation, Spicer includes interpretation and commentary in each chapter. After mention of Howells’s adjudication activities in 1939, for instance, Spicer writes two paragraphs about Howells’s strengths as an adjudicator as perceived by others, including contemporaries undertaking the same lacklustre task (pp114-115). Similar instances of insight are common through the biography.
That Spicer was Howells’s pupil at the Royal College during the composer’s final days might cause concern about his objectivity. Does the author’s close association with the composer cloud his ability to be fair? While the biography is indeed a loving tribute, it includes enough unflattering detail to appear forthright. Spicer includes honest analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of individual works, not to mention the composer’s personal life.
A thorough bibliography of sources is included. The comprehensive general index also lists Howells’s compositions mentioned in the book. Significant photographic illustrations add to the comprehensive nature of Spicer’s biography.
Jeffrey Carter
Lawrence, Kansas