Editing Herbert Howells (section)

===Study at the Royal College of Music===
In 1912, following the example of Ivor Gurney,<ref name="Spicer 1998 24"/> Howells moved to London to study at the [[Royal College of Music]], where his teachers included [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], [[Hubert Parry]] and [[Charles Wood (composer)|Charles Wood]].<ref name="Spicer 1998 32">{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=32}}</ref> Among Howells' contemporaries in the student body were Gurney, [[Arthur Bliss]] and [[Arthur Benjamin]].

Howells blossomed in what he considered the "cosy family" atmosphere of the College,<ref name="Spicer 1998 32"/> and his ''Mass in the Dorian Mode'' was performed at [[Westminster Cathedral]] under [[Richard Runciman Terry|R. R. Terry]] within weeks of his arrival.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=36}}</ref> For the most part, however, his music at this time was orchestral; works included a piano concerto, withdrawn after its first performance,<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=37}}</ref> a light orchestral suite, ''The B's'', portraying three of his friends at the college (Arthur Bliss, Arthur Benjamin, and [[Francis Purcell Warren|Francis Purcell "Bunny" Warren)]], and the ''Three Dances'' for violin and orchestra.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=38}}</ref> More typical of the works with which Howells was later associated were his earliest important compositions for organ, the first set of ''Psalm Preludes'' (1915–16) and the first of the op. 17 ''Rhapsodies''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=40}}</ref>

Howells' promise was imperilled in 1915 when he was diagnosed with [[Graves' disease]] and given six months to live. His poor health prevented him from being conscripted in [[World War I]], arguably preserving him from the worse fate awaiting Gurney and others of his friends and contemporaries. At [[St Thomas' Hospital]] he was given the previously untried [[radium]] injections in the neck, administered twice a week over a period of two years.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=44}}</ref> For much of this time Howells travelled between London for treatment and Lydney where he was nursed by his mother. He was nonetheless still able to compose and in 1916 produced the first work of his maturity.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=46}}</ref> The Piano Quartet in A minor, dedicated to "the hill at [[Chosen Hill, Gloucestershire|Chosen]] and Ivor Gurney who knows it" was in the following year one of the first works published under the auspices of the [[Carnegie United Kingdom Trust]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=48}}</ref> The quartet was first played at the home of Marion M. Scott on July 13 1916, the players being Nancy Phillips, Sybil Maturin, Dorothy Thuell and George Ball, who afterwards played it at the RCM. Its first public performance took place at Oxford in November 1917.<ref> Evans, E. (1920). Modern British Composers. VIII. Herbert Howells. The Musical Times, 61(924), 87–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/910391</ref> In the following year Howells became assistant organist at [[Salisbury Cathedral]], but held the post for only a few months,<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=54}}</ref> finding the repeated journeys to London for treatment too difficult. Friends then arranged for a grant from the Carnegie Trust, which paid for Howells to assist [[Richard Terry (musicologist)|R. R. Terry]] in editing the Latin Tudor repertoire that Terry and his choir were reviving at [[Westminster Cathedral]]. The work was to lead to a multi-volume edition of ''Tudor Church Music'' by Oxford University Press in the 1920s.<ref name="gramophone">{{Cite web |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/stile-antico-record-highlights-from-the-tudor-church-music-edition-%E2%80%93-hear-an |title=Stile Antico record highlights from the Tudor Church Music edition |date=July 2013 |work=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |access-date=1 January 2018}}</ref> It provided Howells with a comfortable income<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=56}}</ref> and enabled him to absorb the English Renaissance style which he loved and would evoke in his own music. His first significant works for choir, the ''Three Carol-Anthems'' (''Here is the Little Door'', ''A Spotless Rose'' and ''Sing Lullaby'') were written around this time.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=66}}</ref>