Herbert Howells was composing at a time of tremendous upheaval and turmoil in Europe. Born in Gloucestershire he found his musical education through the church, learning organ and gaining a place as a chorister. Following training at the Royal College of Music, Howells was known primarily as a teacher, chorus master and adjudicator. He held down two major jobs simultaneously, which allowed little time for compositon.

We are blessed however with the Clarinet Sonata that dates from 1946-1951. Written for the eminent clarinettist Frederick Thurston, Howells penned this Sonata in the wake of a shattering rejection of his Oboe Sonata by its dedicatee Leon Goossens. Howells successfully brushed off this blow to his morale and continued to hone his craft producing one of the most sublime works for the genre.

To my mind this Sonata is the next best work after Brahms seminal pair of Sonatas written in his twilight years. Even though Howells went on to live for thirty more years after the Sonata's composition, this was his last major chamber composition adding his name to the list of composers that turned to the clarinet to share their final ideas with the world.

The Sonata is an extraordinary feat of composition using a modal tonality. Far from being 'folky' or backward looking, Howells modernises modality with the chromaticism of late-Romantic sensibility. This unique voice comments on the futility and loss of the 20th Century's history to date, infused with his own personal tragedy and near brush with death. For all the frustration and melancholy that Howells expresses there is always a deeper core of hope and optimism, resignation, tranquility and ultimately peace.