Music Notes for Dedication Sunday — October 6, 2024

 

Behold, O God our defender – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Herbert Howells showed a keen interest in composition early in his life and, at the age of eighteen, became a pupil of Herbert Brewer, Organist of Gloucester Cathedral. In 1912 he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied under Charles Villiers Stanford, Walter Parratt, Charles Wood and Hubert Parry. He was a prodigiously gifted musician, and the favourite student of the notoriously hard-to-please Stanford. Howells is most famous for his large output of Anglican church music, which in its modality shows the influence of plainsong and the English Renaissance style, all the while exhibiting his own unmistakable harmonic language.

In November 1952, Howells was invited to compose a short Introit for the Coronation Service of Queen Elizabeth II. The text was to be verses from Psalm 84, beginning ‘Behold, O God our defender’. He completed this quiet, reflective prelude to a great state occasion at the end of that year, on Christmas Day. For the Coronation itself the combined choirs were large, and Howells provided a fully orchestrated score, but this sensitive anthem is more usually heard, as this Sunday’s communion motet in church, with smaller forces and organ accompaniment. The text, and the larger context of Psalm 84, with its references to the dwelling place of the Lord, has resulted in this anthem being sung frequently on Dedication festivals.

Behold, O God our defender;
and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For one day in thy courts is better than a thousand.