{"product_id":"artiste-inconnu_partsongs_2026","title":"Partsongs","description":"SOMM Recordings is proud to present The Mira Ensemble, whose name comes from the Latin word meaning \"wonderful\" or \"admirable\" and brings together professional singers from across the United Kingdom. The group was founded in 2025 to promote the extended, yet little-known and often overlooked repertoire of music for treble voices. Their first album focuses on the treble repertoire of Herbert Howells, and it includes virtually all the world premiere recordings that highlight a rarely discussed part of his work. The ensemble is conducted by Tom Edney, a conductor, composer, academic, editor, and orchestrator born in Newcastle. They are accompanied by pianist Nick Salwey, who has performed live on BBC Radio 3, ITV, Channel 4, and Classic FM. Nick has taught at Oxford, Eton College, and Winchester College, where he was head of piano from 2005 to 2025, and where he continues to teach and work as an accompanist. Herbert Howells (1892–1983) composed a significant body of lyrical, often pastoral parts characterized by rich harmony and expressive setting. The early pieces on this album include The Shepherd, an adaptation of William Blake; A Croon drawn from an old lullaby; An Old Man's Lullaby by Elizabethan Thomas Dekker; and A Tinker's Song, an old anonymous song from London dating back to 1667. Two unison songs from the 1920s — an old nursery rhyme The Wonderful Derby Ram and a Spanish lullaby — evoke Howells' childhood singing experiences. A Golden Lullaby is another version of Dekker's An Old Man's Lullaby, and Howells' different approaches to voice are striking. My Master Hath a Garden, set to an anonymous text, reflects the influence of Gustav Holst, while the old nursery rhyme Sing Ivy evokes some of Holst's folk song arrangements — although it moves halfway towards a sound reminiscent of Tudor keyboard music. Howells' interest in dance forms stemmed from his fascination with English Tudor music, and he adopted a Sarabande by setting a text from the refined Elizabethan Thomas Campion, Tune thy Music. In the early 1930s, Howells dedicated a setting of one of Walter de la Mare's miniatures, Bunches of Grapes, to his two children. In an equally light tone, Sea Urchins with texts by Gladys Balcomb describes seaside holidays across ten movements. Two poetic meditations on Elizabethan texts — Sweet Content by Robert Greene and To Music Bent by Campion — also emerge from this decade. Howells lost his nine-year-old son to polio in 1935, and Piping down the Valleys Wild — William Blake's depiction of a divine child asking the piper to keep playing — is the bittersweet offering of a grieving parent. Howells composed fewer treble parts after World War II. Among these are The Key of the Kingdom, another text by de la Mare adapted from an old nursery rhyme; Pink Almond, with a text by Irish writer Katharine Tynan, in Sarabande form; and the charming A Christmas Song, set to a text by 17th-century writer George Wither, composed on Christmas Day in 1957.","brand":"Artiste Inconnu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57936055599448,"sku":null,"price":20260701.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/0748871072527.jpg?v=1786401572","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en\/products\/artiste-inconnu_partsongs_2026","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}