Havergal Brian: Complete Choral Songs Vol. 2 [CD]

The reputation of Havergal Brian (1876-1972) as a late-blooming symphonist obscures the fact that he was an early-blooming composer of choral music for the huge market of amateur choirs thriving in Edwardian England. His choral songs range from simple unison settings for children's or women's voices to harmonically complex essays intended to tax the ability of groups taking part in the choral competitions once popular in regional Britain. This second selection includes four canons that Brian wrote in the early 1920s as contrapuntal studies for his mighty Gothic Symphony.