Herbert Howells - Partsongs (The Mira Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Herbert Howells

1. The Wonderful Derby Ram
2. Sweet Content
3. Piping down the valleys wild
4. A Croon
5. My master hath a garden
6. The Key of the Kingdom
7. Sing Ivy
8. To music bent
9. A Golden Lullaby
10. Bunches of grapes
11. Pink Almond
12. A Christmas Carol
13. The Shepherd
14. Spanish Lullaby
15. Sea Urchins: No. 1, Overture
16. Sea Urchins: No. 2, Happy Street
17. Sea Urchins: No. 3, Many Rainbows
18. Sea Urchins: No. 4, The Sea-Side Landlady
19. Sea Urchins: No. 5, Granny sits beside the sea
20. Sea Urchins: No. 6, The Barrel-Organ
21. Sea Urchins: No. 7, A Seaside Lullaby
22. Sea Urchins: No. 8, The Lair on the Cliff
23. Sea Urchins: No. 9, Lindy’s Ballet Shoes
24. Sea Urchins: No. 10, The Musical Train
25. Sea Urchins: No. 11, The Open Air
26. An Old Man’s Lullaby
27. The Tinker’s Song
28. Tune thy music

The Mira Ensemble

Tom Edney, director

Nick Salwey, piano

Date: 2026

Label: SOMM Recordings

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SOMM Recordings introduces the debut disc from The Mira Ensemble, a professional UK vocal group founded in 2025 by conductor Tom Edney to champion neglected repertoire for upper voices. Accompanied by pianist Nick Salwey, the album features entirely premiere recordings of upper-voices partsongs by Herbert Howells (1892–1983). The program traces Howells's stylistic evolution from early, richly harmonic pastoral pieces and 1920s unison folk songs to complex Holst- and Tudor-influenced works. It also includes intimate 1930s miniatures—such as the lighthearted Sea Urchins and the bittersweet Piping down the Valleys Wild, written after his son's death—concluding with rare post-war compositions like A Christmas Carol.

Founded in 2025, The Mira Ensemble is a professional UK vocal group dedicated to championing the extensive, yet frequently neglected, repertoire written specifically for adult women’s voices. Committed to high-quality performances, the group blends artistic excellence with leading musicological research to advocate for underrepresented works and support younger singers. Their debut recording project features premiere performances of Herbert Howells's rarely discussed upper-voices output. The ensemble is directed by Tom Edney, a freelance conductor, composer, and doctoral researcher at the Royal College of Music whose academic expertise focuses on 1960s British choral-orchestral music and the catalog of Avril Coleridge-Taylor.

High Resolution 24-bit / 96 kHz