Editing Herbert Howells (section)

===Background and early education===
[[File:Birthplace of Composer, Herbert Howells - geograph.org.uk - 582188.jpg|thumb|Birthplace of Herbert Howells on High Street, [[Lydney]], Gloucestershire]]
Howells was born in [[Lydney]], Gloucestershire, the youngest of six children of Oliver Howells, a plumber, painter, decorator and builder, and his wife Elizabeth.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|first=Paul|title=Herbert Howells|year=1998|publisher=Seren|location=Bridgend|isbn=1-85411-233-3|page=14}}</ref> His father played the organ at the local [[Baptists|Baptist]] church, and Herbert showed early musical promise, first deputising for his father, and then moving at the age of eleven to the local [[Church of England]] parish church as choirboy and unofficial deputy organist.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|title=Herbert Howells|year=1998|publisher=Seren|location=Bridgend|isbn=1-85411-233-3|page=15}}</ref>

The Howells family's precarious financial situation came to a head when Oliver filed for bankruptcy in September 1904, when Herbert was nearly 12.<ref name="'Take Him, Earth' Revisited">{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Elizabeth Leighton|title='Take Him, Earth' Revisited|journal=The American Organist|date=September 2014|page=73}}</ref> This was a deep humiliation in a small community at the time and one from which Howells never fully recovered.<ref>{{cite ODNB|title=Herbert Norman Howells| url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31257|year=2004| doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31257|access-date=27 November 2011| last1=Spicer| first1=Paul}}</ref> Financially assisted by a member of the family of [[Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe]], who had taken an interest in the budding musician, Howells began music lessons in 1905 with [[Herbert Brewer]], the organist of [[Gloucester Cathedral]], and at sixteen became his articled pupil at the Cathedral alongside [[Ivor Novello]] and [[Ivor Gurney]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|isbn=1-85411-233-3|page=18|publisher=Seren }}</ref> Howells and Gurney became close friends, going on long walks through the Gloucestershire countryside discussing their shared love of music and English literature.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|title=Herbert Howells|year=1998|isbn=1-85411-233-3|page=20|publisher=Seren }}</ref>

Another formative experience for the young Howells was the premiere in September 1910 at the Gloucester [[Three Choirs Festival]] of [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]]' ''[[Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis]]''. Howells related in later years how Vaughan Williams sat next to him for the remainder of the concert and shared his score of [[Edward Elgar]]'s ''[[The Dream of Gerontius]]'' with the awestruck aspiring composer.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=22}}</ref> Both Vaughan Williams and the Tudor composers (including [[Thomas Tallis|Tallis]]) profoundly influenced Howells' work.<ref name="Spicer 1998 24">{{cite book|last=Spicer|title=Herbert Howells|year=1998|page=24}}</ref>