Like as the Hart
Herbert Howells
Recording
Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Iain Farrington (organ), Christopher Robinson
- Album
- Howells: Requiem / Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing
- Year
- 1999
- Length
- Period
- 20th c. & modern
- Listen
Painting
Frederic Edwin Church
Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860
The piece
Howells set Psalm 42, “Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God”, in 1941, during the Second World War. Its modal, blues-tinged harmony and long vocal lines draw on Tudor church music, as Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia does.
The recording
Christopher Robinson's choir of men and boys recorded it in St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, where Howells directed the choir during the war as deputy for Robin Orr. The trebles give the bright, focused tone of the English collegiate tradition.
Other recordings
The Cambridge Singers under John Rutter, and Trinity College Choir, Cambridge under Stephen Layton (Hyperion).