Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

Life

Born: 27 February 1848

Died: 07 October 1918

Biography

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (February 27, 1848 – October 7, 1918) was an English composer, probably best known for his setting of William Blake's poem, Jerusalem. Born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, and brought up at Highnam Court, Gloucestershire, he was the second son of Thomas Gambier Parry, of Highnam Court, Gloucester - an amateur artist, and He was educated at Malvern, Twyford, near Winchester, Eton (from 1861), and Exeter College, Oxford. While still at Eton he wrote music, two anthems being published in 1865; a service in D was dedicated to Sir John Stainer. He took the degree of Mus.B. at Oxford at the age of eighteen, and that of B.A. in 1870; he then left Oxford for London, where in the following year he entered Lloyds, abandoning business for art soon afterwards.

He studied successively with H. H. Pierson (at Stuttgart), Sterndale Bennett and Macfarren; but the most important part of his artistic development was due to pianist Edward Dannreuther in London. Among the larger works of this early period must be mentioned an overture, Guillem de Cabestanh (Crystal Palace, 1879), a pianoforte concerto in F sharp minor, played by Dannreuther at the Crystal Palace and Richter concerts in 1880, and his first choral work, the Scenes from Prometheus Unbound, produced at the Gloucester Festival, 1880. These, like a symphony in G given at the Birmingham Festival of 1882, seemed strange even to educated hearers, who were confused by the intricacy of treatment. It was not until his setting of Shirleys ode, Tile Glories of our Blood and State, was brought out at Gloucester, 1883, and the Partila for violin and pianoforte was published about the same time, that Parrys importance came to be realized.

His first major works appeared in 1880: a piano concerto and a choral setting of scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. The first performance of the latter has often been held to mark the start of a "renaissance" in English classical music. Parry scored a greater contemporary success, however, with the ode Blest Pair of Sirens (1887) which established him as the leading English choral composer of his day. Among the most successful of a long series of similar works were the Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day (1889), the oratorios Judith (1888) and Job (1892), the psalm-setting De Profundis (1891) and The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905). His orchestral works from this period include four symphonies, the Overture to an Unwritten Tragedy (1893) and the Elegy for Brahms (1897). Parry joined the staff of the Royal College of Music in 1884 and was appointed its director in 1894, a post he held until his death. In 1900 he succeeded John Stainer as professor of music at Oxford University. His later music includes a series of six "ethical cantatas", experimental works in which he hoped to supersede the traditional oratorio and cantata forms. They were generally unsuccessful with the public, though Elgar admired The Vision of Life (1907) and The Soul's Ransom (1906) has had several modern performances. He resigned his Oxford appointment on doctor's advice in 1908 and in the last decade of his life produced some of his finest works, including the Symphonic Fantasia '1912' (also called Symphony No. 5), the Ode on the Nativity (1912), Jerusalem (1916) and the Songs of Farewell (1916 –1918).

Influenced as a composer principally by Bach and Brahms, Parry evolved a powerful diatonic style which itself greatly influenced future English composers such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams. His own full development as a composer was almost certainly hampered by the immense amount of work he took on, but his energy and charisma, not to mention his abilities as a teacher and administrator, helped establish art music at the centre of English cultural life. He collaborated with the poet Robert Bridges, and was responsible for many books on music, including The Evolution of the Art of Music (1896), the third volume of the Oxford History of Music (1907) and a study of Bach (1909).

His six “Songs of Farewell” are the last works in his repertoire, and seem to be a reflection of his resignation to his terminal illness. The poignant words of Thomas Campion’s Poem “Never weather-beaten sail” which entreats us:

     Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast:
     O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.

Seem a fitting epithet to one of England’s greatest choral composers.

View the Wikipedia article on Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

List of choral works

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• Blest pair of Sirens    (  )

• Hear my words, ye people   (   Sibelius 4 )

• I sing the Birth - in preparation.

• I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me   (   SIBELIUS 4 )

• Jerusalem   (   ENCORE ) - 3 editions available

• Music, When Soft Voices Die   (   Finale-1998 )

• My Delight and Thy Delight   (   Sibelius 4 )

• O Love, they wrong thee much   (   Finale-2000 )

• Prevent us, O Lord    (   )

• Songs of Farewell (6 songs, see individual listings)

• My Soul, There is a Country   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 1 from Songs of Farewell, 3 editions available

• I Know My Soul Hath Power   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 2 from Songs of Farewell

• Never Weather-Beaten Sail   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 3 from Songs of Farewell

• There Is An Old Belief   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 4 from Songs of Farewell

• At The Round Earths Imagined Corners   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 5 from Songs of Farewell

• Lord, let me know mine end   (   Sibelius 4 ) No. 6 from Songs of Farewell

• There Rolls the Deep   (   Finale-2000 )

• Welcome, Yule!   (   SIBELIUS )

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