Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing, motet on the death of President Kennedy for chorus
Herbert Howells reported that the experience that convinced him to pursue a career in music was hearing a performance of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis when he was 18. It's perhaps no coincidence that when he began composing his 1936 Requiem in response to the death of his nine-year-old son, the distinctive sonorities of the Tallis Fantasia subliminally found their way into the opening movement of this very personal and deeply felt work. Each of the movements, with texts taken from the psalms and ...
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Herbert Howells reported that the experience that convinced him to pursue a career in music was hearing a performance of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis when he was 18. It's perhaps no coincidence that when he began composing his 1936 Requiem in response to the death of his nine-year-old son, the distinctive sonorities of the Tallis Fantasia subliminally found their way into the opening movement of this very personal and deeply felt work. Each of the movements, with texts taken from the psalms and other scriptural and liturgical sources, uses rich, late-Romantic harmonies and is suffused with gentleness, even serenity. A similar tonal language characterizes the motet Take him, earth, for cherishing, written as a memorial for John F. Kennedy, but it is a more overtly anguished work, with somewhat more astringent harmonies. Corydon Singers, led by Matthew Best, bring the music a tone that is pure and bright and warm. They maintain a spirit of restraint in the Requiem, but their...
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