Herbert Sumsion

Air, Berceuse and Procession

This three-movement work for Organ, Air, Berceuse and Procession, written in 1949, is a very appealing piece that speaks in Sumsion's fresh, melodic Voice. His style is diatonic, modern and individual and has not been aged by the orthodoxies of its time.

Twentieth century composer and Organist Harold Sumsion spent most of his life in Gloucester where he was a chorister at the cathedral, then an articled pupil to the Organist and later assistant Organist and eventually a leader of the Three Choirs Festival. There were short periods studying and teaching in at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He enjoyed a long and productive tenure at Gloucester Cathedral where, through his leadership of the Three Choirs Festival, he came to know some of the most important British composers, in particular Edward Elgar.