Christopher Tye and Herbert Howells Live!

Tomorrow evening,Tuesday, July 26,
Washington, DC area residents will have
an fine opportunity to hear a free
(donations requested) performance, at
Washington's National Cathedral, by
the Ensemble Phoenix, under Robert Lehman,
of five centuries of largely English
renaissance and modern choral ensemble
music. The composers featured are
Christopher Tye (his exquisite Missa
Euge bone , which was also performed
on Saturday evening, at Trinity College Chapel,
Cambridge, England, by the Serlo Consort --
see "On An Overgrown Path" for review),
Herbert Howells (his short, but intense,
Requiem, composed in 1935 on the death of
his son), and short works by
Taverner, Lauridsen, Whitacre, Fissinger,
Stanford, and Britten.

Bob Shingleton, the classical music magus
behind England's leading music blog
"On an Overgrown Path", recommends that
classical music lovers also be sure to check out
Herbert Howells's Hymnus Paradisi,
and Edmund Rubbra's Symphony #9
(Symphonia Sacra). Washington
audiences will remember a fine performance of
the Howells Hymnus Paradisi, several years back,
at the Washington National Cathedral.
Washington audiences will also, of course,
remember Herbert Howells's motet
"Take him, earth, for cherishing" (1964),
composed in memory of President John F. Kennedy.

With so much beautiful music to be listened to
(and written and discussed), who
has time to attend the show-down between the
Chelsea Blues and D.C. United, in Washington, D.C.,
on July 29? I certainly don't.


















Lindisfarne Abbey
Photo Credit: University of Sunderland