Complete Organ Works of Herbert Sumsion

After a short period in America (1926–1928) as Professor of Harmony at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Herbert Sumsion accepted the appointment of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Gloucester Cathedral. He retired from the post at Gloucester Cathedral in 1967 and continued to be active with teaching and composition until shortly before his death in 1995. Two great English choral works of this century - Herbert Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi and Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality - received their premieres at the 1950 Gloucester Festival. These two composers were particularly close friends of Sumsion. It would follow then that Sumsion’s own compositions are in this same mould, yet there is a very distinct style that endears his music to singers and listeners alike. Church music has benefitted tremendously from his work.