The first of these settings will come as news to many. We know Howells in connection with Cambridge, Chichester, Gloucester, London, Oxford and Worcester - but Dallas? The booklet-notes mention 'copyright problems'. Clearly the service deserves to be performed more widely: it's characteristic in its arching melody and pentatonic progression, unusual in its mood, with never an outright committal of confidence till the final chord.
It introduces one of the most interesting programmes in the series. All but two of the settings were written in the 20th century, two of them for Norwich. Paul Bryan's is for trebles while Paul Patterson's is for full choir, both with a busy organ accompaniment. Patterson's Magnificat is one of those rather compulsively syncopated manifestos of modernity in church music: attractive up to a point, but it's a relief to find that the hopping and twitching stops with the Nunc dimittis. I do very much like Bryan Kelly's 'Jamaican' Service, which might be open to a similar mild objection but is stronger in ideas and zest. The Nunc lilts like a Caribbean lullaby, and the Gloria moves fully into carnival mood with the Amens.
Jonathan Wise and Thomas Walmisley are the odd men out. Wise, who enjoyed his tipple in the 17th century, would probably have syncopated happily in this: Walmisley, who worked so energetically for the span of his 42 years, has a musical vitality that adds much-needed colour to the choral repertoire of the mid-19th (this service, incidentally, is a very good one in D major, and not the more familiar D minor). The Cathedral Choir is in fine form, neat and assured, with good strong trebles and a well- balanced blend of voices. The organists in this series seem uniformly admirable, and Katherine Dienes is no exception. Clear recording; useful booklet.'