Works
Sumsion’s compositional style reflects the influence of his more famous contemporaries Howells, Finzi, and Vaughan Williams, while at the same time retaining something of the ‘diatonic strength’ of Edwardian composers like Parry and Brewer. Despite these influences, however, Sumsion’s music speaks in a fresh and distinctive voice that is appealing to both performers and listeners. His harmonic language is sturdy and conventional, yet often tinged with modality, and his melodic style is fluid and elegant. In the organ and choral works Sumsion displays a fondness for parallel thirds in the accompaniment, detached bass lines, and the descending minor third in the melody.
Choral and organ music appear most often in Sumsion’s output during his Gloucester tenure and retirement, with many choral pieces dating from his last decade of life. Works such as the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in G major, the Preces and Responses, and the anthem They that go down to the sea in ships have entered the standard repertoire of Anglican church music. A new disc of Sumsion's choral music featuring the Ecclesium Choir (Philip Stopford, director) was released in 2007 as No. 9 in Priory's British Church Composers Series. Sumsion's most significant work for organ is the challenging Introduction and Theme, which has been recorded by Donald Hunt (among others) for the Helios label.
Most of Sumsion's chamber and orchestral works were written earlier in his career and are unpublished or out of print; however a Piano Trio, the orchestral pieces Overture, In the Cotswolds and Idyll, At Valley Green, and the Cello Sonata have all had public performances, the first three at various Three Choirs Festivals. David Lloyd-Jones and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia have recorded an attractive work for strings called A Mountain Tune (‘English String Miniatures’/White Line/2003), which Sumsion originally wrote for cello and piano.
Read more about this topic: Herbert Sumsion
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“I meet him at every turn. He is more alive than ever he was. He has earned immortality. He is not confined to North Elba nor to Kansas. He is no longer working in secret. He works in public, and in the clearest light that shines on this land.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It’s an old trick now, God knows, but it works every time. At the very moment women start to expand their place in the world, scientific studies deliver compelling reasons for them to stay home.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)