Songs of Farewell

Both works were written in response to profound personal experiences of both composers.

Herbert Howells wrote his Requiem in memory of those soldiers , but the writing process took a very bitter turn when his son - who had added a note to the score at his father's invitation - died of polio at the age of nine. Hubert Parry came up with his composition Songs of Farewell in response to the deaths of some of his students at the Royal College of Music in London. They too had been sent to the battlefield.  

James MacMillan composed his Tenebrae Responsories (2006) in the spirit of Renaissance masters such as Gesualdo and Victoria. The work is as complex as it is dramatic: central is the power of love that speaks from the personal sacrifices we make.

The context of this programme features quotes from World War I soldiers, drawing on diaries, accounts and letters. It is wrenching to see how those quotes have lost none of their topicality. When do we as humans learn from our mistakes? We go back to the times of then, in the times of now. A then that bears a painful resemblance to the present. The comforting effect of Howells and Parry's music is as urgent as ever.