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Dorothy Gertrude Howell (25 February 1898 – 12 January 1982) was an English composer and pianist. She received the nickname of the "English Richard Strauss" in her lifetime.[1]
Howell was born in Birmingham, grew up in Handsworth, and received a convent education. She received private composition lessons from Granville Bantock[2] before beginning her studies at the Royal Academy of Music,[1] aged 15. Her teachers there included John Blackwood McEwen and Tobias Matthay.[3]
Howell achieved fame with her symphonic poem Lamia (inspired by the Keats poem) which Sir Henry Wood premiered at The Proms on 10 September 1919.[4] Wood directed Lamia again that same week (on 13 September 1919) and again in six subsequent Proms seasons,[5] but after 1940 the piece was neglected until its revival at the 2010 Proms season.[6][7][8] It received a centenary performance at the Proms in 2019.[9] Howell dedicated Lamia on its 1921 publication to Wood.[10]
Among other compositions by Howell, Wood conducted the ballet score Koong Shee in 1921, her Piano Concerto in 1923 and 1927 (with the composer herself as pianist on both occasions), and the overture The Rock, inspired by a visit to Gibraltar, in 1928. In 1940 Wood was scheduled to conduct the first performance of Three Divertissements, her last known orchestral work, but the concert was cancelled owing to The Blitz. The piece did not receive its premiere until the 1950 Elgar Festival in Malvern.[11] Premiere recordings of Koong Shee, The Rock and the Three Divertissements were issued in 2024.[12]
Howell won the Cobbett Prize in 1921 for her Phantasy for violin and piano. Wood attempted to recruit Howell to his conducting class at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in 1923, but she instead became a teacher at the RAM in 1924. During World War II, she served with the Women's Land Army. She taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from 1950 to 1957. She retired from the RAM in 1970, and after her retirement, continued to teach students privately.[1] She died in Malvern, aged 83.
Howell tended the grave of Sir Edward Elgar for several years,[4] and herself is buried near Elgar in the churchyard of St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church, Little Malvern.[1][13] She is one of the subjects of a 2023 group biography of four women composers by Leah Broad, Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World.[4]
- Chamber Music: Lorraine McAslan (violin), Sophia Rahman (piano). Piano Sonata, Violin Sonata, Five Studies for piano, Humoresque for piano, The Moorings for violin & piano, Phantasy for violin & piano, Rosalind for violin & piano. Dutton CDLX7144 (2004)
- Danza Gaya: Music for Two Pianos, Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi. Includes Recuerdos preciosos Nos. 1 and 2, Mazurka and Spindrift. Lyrita SRCD433 (2024)
- Lamia: Karelia Symphony Orchestra, cond. Marius Stravinsky. British Composers Premiere Collection Vol. 1, Cameo Classics CC9037CD (2014)
- Lamia: BBC Philharmonic, cond. Rumon Gamba. British Tone Poems Vol. 2, Chandos CHAN10981 (2019)
- Orchestral Works: BBC Concert Orchestra, cond. Rebecca Miller. Humoresque, Lamia, Koong Shee, The Rock, Three Divertissements. Signum SIGCD763 (2024)
- Piano Concerto in D minor: Danny Driver, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Rebecca Miller, Hyperion CDA68130 (2017)
- Piano Concerto in D minor: Valentina Seferinova, Orion Symphony Orchestra, cond. Toby Purser. British Composers Premiere Collection Vol. 4, Cameo Classics CC9041 (2014)
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