Editing Herbert Howells (section)

===Family tragedy and the war===
In September 1935 Howells' nine-year-old son Michael contracted [[Poliomyelitis|polio]] during a family holiday, dying in London three days later.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Palmer|title=Herbert Howells: a centenary celebration|year=1992|page=93}}: "Only when they reached London was polio diagnosed for certain". That the cause of death was polio is confirmed by Spicer (1998) p. 97, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31257 ''Oxford DNB''], [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/13436 ''Grove''] and an interview with Howells contained in Regan (1971); however, the statement that the boy died of spinal [[meningitis]] is commonly found in programme notes. See also Holland (2011). [http://www.cvppsg.org/newsletter/2011-06-07.pdf "Michael's Tune"].</ref> Michael was buried in the churchyard of St Matthew's Church in [[Twigworth]], Gloucestershire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saylor |first1=Eric |title=English Pastoral Music: From Arcadia to Utopia, 1900–1955 |date=2017 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252099656 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unYlDwAAQBAJ&q=howells%20twigworth&pg=PT129 |access-date=24 September 2019 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Cooke|p=293}}

Howells was deeply affected and continued to commemorate the event until the end of his life.<ref>{{cite book|author=Palmer|title=H. Howells: a centenary celebration|year=1992|page=125}}</ref> At the suggestion of his daughter Ursula<ref name="Spicer 1998 100">{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=100}}</ref> he sought to channel his grief into music, and over the next three years composed much of the large-scale choral work which was eventually to become ''Hymnus Paradisi'', drawing on material from the still unpublished ''Requiem'' of 1932. This remained, in Howells' words, "a personal, almost secret document"<ref>{{cite book|author=Palmer|title=H. Howells: a centenary celebration|year=1992|page=415}}</ref> until 1950. Other commemorative works written around this time include the ''Concerto for Strings'' (written in 1938), the slow movement of which is in joint memory of Michael and [[Edward Elgar]], and the unfinished ''Cello Concerto'', on which Howells had been working at the time of the boy's death and which he found himself unable to complete.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|pages=108–111}}</ref><ref name="Spicer">{{cite ODNB|author=Spicer|title=Howells, Herbert Norman (1892–1983)|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31257 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31257}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The concerto was completed by Jonathan Clinch in 2015, and recorded by Alice Neary with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Ronald Corp. The first concert performance was given by Guy Johnston and the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martin André in Gloucester Cathedral on 9 July 2016, as part of the Cheltenham Music Festival.|url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/gramophone-guest-blog/on-completing-herbert-howells-cello-concerto|website=Gramophone.co.uk|date=4 March 2015 |access-date=17 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.classical-music.com/features/works/moment-howells-history|title=Howells Cello Concerto: All you need to know|website=Classical-music.com|date=July 2016 |access-date=17 October 2024}}</ref> ''A Sequence for St Michael'' and the motet ''Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing'' have also been associated with Howells's grief for Michael, as have two of Howells's [[hymn tune]]s, the best-known of which is his tune for the hymn "[[All My Hope on God is Founded]]" by [[Robert Bridges]] ("A Hymn Tune for Charterhouse"), which was renamed ''Michael'' for its publication in ''The Clarendon Hymn Book'' in 1936.<ref>Palmer (1992). p. 119; Holland (2011).</ref> Howells also wrote the tune ''Twigworth'' (1968) for the hymn "God is love, let heaven adore him".  To a greater or lesser extent, however, much of Howells' subsequent music shows the influence of this loss.<ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Michael |title=MUSIC / The sorrow that sounds like heaven: When Herbert Howells lost |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music-the-sorrow-that-sounds-like-heaven-when-herbert-howells-lost-a-son-the-church-gained-some-1556718.html |website=The Independent |access-date=24 September 2019 |language=en |date=11 October 1992}}</ref>

From the late 1930s, Howells turned increasingly to choral and organ music, composing a second series of ''Psalm Preludes'' followed by a set of ''Six Pieces'' (begun 1939), of which the third, ''Master Tallis's Testament'', a particular favourite of the composer's, recalled his formative experience of Vaughan Williams' ''Tallis Fantasia''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=116}}</ref> A set of ''Four Anthems'', originally titled ''In Time of War'' and including the popular ''O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem'' and ''Like as the Hart'',<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=119}}</ref> followed in early 1941. In August of that year, Howells was invited to serve as acting organist of [[St John's College, Cambridge]], replacing [[Robin Orr]] who was away on active service in [[World War II]]. Howells' association with Cambridge, which lasted until the end of the war in 1945, was a productive and happy period for him,<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=122}}</ref> and led directly to the works for which he is most remembered. He later recalled<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=130}}</ref> being challenged by the Dean of [[King's College, Cambridge|King's College]], [[Eric Milner-White]], to write a set of [[canticle]]s for the choir. The result was the [[Te Deum]] and [[Psalm 100|Jubilate]] of the [[service (music)|service]] known as ''[[Collegium Regale (Howells)|Collegium Regale]]'', performed in 1944, followed the next year by the [[Magnificat]] and [[Nunc Dimittis]], and completed in 1956 by the ''Office of Holy Communion''. ''Collegium Regale'', the [[Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for Gloucester Cathedral|''Gloucester Service'']] (for [[Gloucester Cathedral]], 1946) and the [[Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for St Paul's Cathedral|''St Paul's Service'']] (for St Paul's Cathedral, 1951) remain the best known and most admired of the many settings of the Anglican liturgy written by Howells for particular choirs and buildings over the next thirty years.<ref>{{cite book|author=Spicer|title=Howells|year=1998|page=135}}</ref>