Marlborough Canticles

Howard’s (SATB) setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis was commissioned by Marlborough College and completed in 1994. In describing the style of the canticles, Howard has said, “When it comes to Evening Canticles, I’m afraid I am an unashamed lover of the epic and the tuneful chestnuts of Stanford, Wesley, Walmisley et al, and apart from lapsing into a vaguely gospel Gloria in the Nunc Dimittis, I am true to those boyhood sweethearts. Stanford would never have sanctioned the gently swaying dance rhythms of these canticles, of course, but then he didn’t have Stevie Wonder in his record collection, did he?”

The first performance was at St George’s Chapel, Windsor by the Marlborough College Choir directed by Robin Nelson.  It is available on the Howard Goodall Choral Works CD, and on the Faber New Choral Works CD.