Martin How and the RSCM

Here is a setting of the Evening Canticles by Martin How, the only setting I know that uses the American BCP’s “Rite Two” text.

I cannot pretend to write properly about Martin How; a beginning might be made at Wikipedia and a bit more may be found in the online archives of the RSCM. But not enough. My point of contact with him was the Chorister Training Scheme. When I began RSCM work in the 1980’s, it was with Mr. How’s “little blue cards” (and red, for the Chorister level), with the slender handbook explaining how to use them. I still have the handbook, and still refer to it for the wisdom condensed into its 38 pages. In a manner that I gather was typical of him, How’s name does not appear anywhere in this volume, or on the CTS materials. Instead he explains: “What is presented here is not an entirely new approach, but the bringing together of ideas and experience which have proved successful.”

Indeed they have. Times have changed since the 1950’s and 60’s when he developed the Scheme, and the RSCM’s training materials have changed – and not always, in my opinion, for the better. But Mr. How’s “bringing together of ideas and experience” have been in some respects the foundation of my life’s work. I believe that if Mr. How were to walk into this afternoon’s Youth Choir rehearsal in our parish – and most certainly were he to slip into a rehearsal at the St. Louis RSCM Course this summer – he would immediately recognize what we are doing.

I am grateful for musicians such as Mr. How who, despite the commitments of an active musical life, find the time to teach others how to do the work, by written and spoken words and most of all by example.