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King's College Cambridge Service (Collegium Regale)

Magnificat and Nunc dimittis
For the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity Gloucester
Sacred choral music by Herbert Howells
Choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge
Other name	Collegium Regale
Text	Magnificat Nunc dimittis
Language	English
Composed	1944 (1944)
Published	1947 (1947)

Collegium Regale is a collection of choral settings by the English composer Herbert Howells of the canticles for the for the Anglican services of Mattins, Holy Communion and Evening Prayer. Scored for four-part choir, solo tenor and organ, the pieces were written between 1944 and 1956 "for the King's College, Cambridge" (Collegium Regale in Latin). The pieces were first published by Novello in 1947.

Text

The text of the first service setting for the daily service of Mattins in the Anglican church consists of three pieces. The Te Deum is an ancient Latin Christian hymn; the Benedictus is a song of thanksgiving uttered by Zechariah, father of John the Baptist and one of the a biblical canticles; and the Jubilate is a setting of Psalm 100.

The setting of the evening canticles, part of the Anglican daily service of Evening Prayer, consists of the Magnificat (Song of Mary) and Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeon). Mary sings the Magnificat ("My soul doth magnify the Lord") on the occasion of her visit to Elizabeth, as narrated in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:39–56). Simeon sings the Nunc dimittis ("Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace") when Jesus is presented in the temple (Luke 2:29–32).

Howells also set the text of the Office of the Holy Communion to music; like the morning and evening offices, the text is taken from the Book of Common Prayer. Because the Anglican liturgy is originally derived from the Roman Catholic Ordinary of the Mass, the pieces correspond with the sections of a Mass setting: Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Gloria in excelsis. Each section is titled in Greek or Latin, but the text is in the English translation, and the Gloria is sung at the end of the service according to the Anglican tradition.

Composition

In 1941, Howells took the post of acting organist of St John's College, Cambridge, standing in for Robin Orr who was away on active service in World War II. Howells attended a tea party held by Eric Milner-White, then Dean (education) of King's College. There, he also met the Director of Music at King's, Boris Ord, and the organist of Gonville and Caius College, Patrick Hadley. The three men challenged Howells to a bet of one guinea that he could not compose a canticle setting for the Choir of King's College Chapel. Howells successfully produced a setting of the Te Deum; he later remarked that it was "the only Te Deum to be born of a decanal bet".

Following the challenge made at the Deanery tea, other settings followed: the Benedictus for Mattins in 1944, and in 1945 he completed the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for Choral evensong. He revisited the music in 1956 for his setting of the Office of the Holy Communion (Collegium Regale). Praising the Collegium Regale settings, Paul Spicer (musician), a pupil of Howells, has stated that "one guinea kickstarted music for the Anglican Church into a whole new phase of existence".

Howells's Collegium Regale evening canticles are among his best-known works and noted for their use of choral voices. While many Anglican settings of the Magnificat begin with full choir or male voices, Howells opens the work with mezzo-piano treble voices, emphasising the feminine voice of Mary's song. Correspondingly, the words of Simeon in the Nunc dimittis are initially conveyed by a solo tenor voice. Explaining his choice of voices, Howells stated that "… if I made a setting of the Magnificat, the mighty should be put down from their seat without a brute force which would deny this canticle’s feminine association. Equally, that in the Nunc dimittis, the tenor’s domination should characterize the gentle Simeon. Only the Gloria should raise its voice."

References

Works cited

• Howells, Herbert (1947). Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. Novello & Co.

• Alwes, Chester Lee (2015). A History of Western Choral Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199377008. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

• Cooke, Phillip A.; Maw, David Nicholas (2013). "The Music of Herbert Howells". Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 93. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

• Gant, Andrew (2015). O Sing unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music. Profile Books. ISBN 9781782830504. Retrieved 24 September 2019.

• Spicer, Paul (1998). Herbert Howells. Bridgend: Seren. ISBN 1-85411-233-3.

External links

• Keller, Benjamin T.: An Historical Perspective on the Choral Music of Herbert Howells as Found in the Anglican Canticle Settings Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for Saint Paul's Cathedral (Dissertation) University of Arizona 1986

Category:Choral compositions Col Reg Category:1944 compositions Category:Compositions by Herbert Howells

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List of compositions by Herbert Howells

Works by the British composer Herbert Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983).

Sacred choral works

Service settings and canticles

• Missa Sine Nomine (Mass in the Dorian Mode) (1912)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G (1918)
• Requiem (1936)
• Te Deum and Jubilate (Collegium Regale) (1944)
• Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Collegium Regale) (1945)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for Men's Voices and Organ (1941)
• Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Gloucester) (1946)
• Te Deum and Bendictus for Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury (1947)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (New College Oxford) (1949)
• Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for St Paul's Cathedral (1950)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Worcester) (1951)
• Te Deum and Bendictus for St.George's Chapel, Windsor (1952)
• Office of the Holy Communion (Collegium Regale) (1956)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (St. Peter's, Westminster) (1957)
• Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense) (1957)
• Missa Aedis Christi (1958)
• Te Deum for St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol (1965)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Sarum) (1966)
• Te Deum for Searle Wright at St.Paul's Church Columbia University (1966)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Winchester) (1967)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Chichester) (1967)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (St.Augustine's Birmingham) (1967)
• Preces and Responses (1967)
• Coventry Mass (1968)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Hereford) (1969)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Collegium Magdalenae Oxoniense) (1970)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (York) (1973)
• Te Deum for the West Ridings Cathedrals Festival (1974)
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Dallas) (1975)
• Te Deum for Washington Cathedral

Hymn tunes

• Erwin (1967)
• In Manus Tuas (1968)
• Kensington (1968)
• Michael (1938)
• Newnham (1968)
• Salisbury (1968)
• Sancta Civitas (1962)
• Twigworth (1968)

Anthems

• Blessed are the Dead (1920)
• By Whose Breath All Souls and Seeds are Living
• A Christmas Carol - So now is come our Joyful'st Feast (1957)
• Coventry Antiphon (1961)
• Even such is Time (1913)
• God be in my head (1966)
• God is Gone Up (1950)
• God Is Love
• A Golden Lullaby (1920)
• A Grace for 10 Downing Street (1972)
• Holy Spirit Ever Dwelling
• A Hymn for St. Cecilia (1960)
• The Key of the Kingdom (1947)
• King of Glory (1949)
• Latin Church Music I: Salve Regina & O Salutaris Hostia (1915)
• Latin Church Music II: Regina Caell
• Latin Church Music III: Nunc Dimittis
• Levavi oculos meos
• Long Long Ago (1950)
• Now Abideth Faith, Hope and Charity (1972)
• O Holy City (Sancta Civitas) (1968)
• Salvator Mundi (O Saviour of the World) (1981)
• A Sequence for St. Michael (1961)
• A True Story (1917)
• Tune thy Music (1927)
• Where Wast Thou? - Motet for Canterbury (1948)

Orchestral works

• Concerto for String Orchestra (1938)
• Fanfare (1977)
• The King's Herald (1937)
• Merry-Eye (1920)
• Music for a Prince: Two Pieces for Orchestra (1948)
• Penguinski (1933)
• Puck's Minuet (1917)
• Suite for String Orchestra (1942)

Chamber works

• Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1936)
• Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 4 (1913)
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in C, Op. 39 (1925)
• Serenade for 4 Solo Violins & String Orchestra (1917)
• Three Dances (1915)

Keyboard works

• Howells' Clavichord (1961)
• Polka for 2 pianos (1951)

Organ

• Cradle Song (1913)
• Flourish for a Bidding (1969)
• Fugue, Chorale and Epilogue (1940)
• Intrada No. 2 (1941)
• Master Tallis's Testament (1940)
• Organ Sonata No 1 in C (1911)
• Paean (1940)
• Partita (1972)
• Prelude De Profundis (1958)
• Preludio Sine Nomine (1940)
• Rhapsody No. 4 Bene Psallite in Vociferatione (1958)
• Saraband for the Morning of Easter (1940)
• Saraband in Modo Elegiaco (1945)
• Siciliano for a High Ceremony (1952)
• Six Pieces for Organ (1945)
• Six Short Pieces for Organ
• Sonata for Organ (No 2) (1933)
• St. Louis comes to Clifton (1977)
• Three Pieces for Organ (1977)
• Three Psalm Preludes Set 1 (1916)
• Three Psalm Preludes Set 2 (1939)
• Two Pieces (1959)
• Two Slow Airs for Organ (1928)

Chorus and Orchestra

• Behold, O God, Our Defender (1952)
• An English Mass (1955)
• The House of the Mind (1954)
• A Hymn for St Cecilia (1960)
• Hymnus Paradisi (1938)
• A Kent Yeoman's Wooing Song (1933)
• A Maid Peerless (1951)
• Michael- a Fanfare Setting
• Missa Sabrinensis - The Severn Mass (1954)
• O Mortal Man (Sussex Mummers' Carol)
• Sine Nomine: A Phantasy (1922)
• Sir Patrick Spens (1917)
• Stabat Mater (1963)
• Te Deum (1944)
• When Cats Run Home (1907)

References

• Cooke, Phillip A.; Maw, David Nicholas (2013). The Music of Herbert Howells. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 309–352. ISBN 9781843838791. Retrieved 23 September 2019.