Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

Life

Born: 27 February 1848

Died: 7 October 1918

Biography

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry 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. His grandfather was a director of the East India Company, and his grandmother was a member of a well-known naval family, which included Lord Gambier, the Admiral of the British fleet. Charles Hubert was educated at Malvern, Twyford, near Winchester, and then at Eton (from 1861), and then at Exeter College, Oxford. While still at Eton he wrote music and two anthems that were published in 1865. Parry wrote solo songs all his life, starting with several composed while he was 18 years old and still attending Eton. Later he wrote an Evening Service in D, and dedicated it to Sir John Stainer. He took the degree of Mus.B. at Oxford at the early age of eighteen, and later earned a B.A. in 1870.

He then left Oxford for London where in the following year he joined a young Eton friend working at Lloyds. Working this job for four years, in duty to his father's desire to not make music his career but his avocation, Charles Hubert was ultimately set free when the business suddenly failed. This failure allowed him to abandon the business for a career in Music, which he commensed by taking a Doctor of Music at Cambridge in 1883. Following this he and took a position at Oxford, suceeding Dr. Corfe in the position of Choragus, simultaneously being admitted to Oxford as a Doctor of Music ad eundem in 1884.

He studied successively with H. H. Pierson (at Stuttgart), Sterndale Bennett and Macfarren; but the most important part of his artistic development was with the pianist Edward Dannreuther in London. Among the larger works of this early period is 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 works, like the Symphony in G, given at the Birmingham Festival of 1882, seemed strange even to educated listeners, who were confused by the intricacy of Parry's treatment. It was not until his setting of James Shirley's 1640 ode, The Glories of our Blood and State, premiered at Gloucester in 1883, and the Partita for violin and pianoforte (published about the same time) that Parry's importance finally was realized by the musical public.

His first major works begin to appear in 1880: a piano concerto and a choral setting of scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. The first performance of the Prometheus has often been held to mark the start of a "renaissance" in English classical music. Parry achieved 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. Blest Pair of Sirens utilized lyrics from John Milton's Ode "At a Solemn Music", and was first performed at the inaugural concert in the newly-built "Albert Hall". The work is dedicated to C. V. Stanford and the Bach Choir. 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 solo works composed in 12 sets of "English Lyrics" (published in 1885, 1886, 1895, 1896, 1902, 1903, 1907 and 1909, and posthumanously in 1918 and 1920). His early orchestral works include four symphonies, the Overture to an Unwritten Tragedy (1893), and the Elegy for Brahms (1897). After Parry joined the staff of the Royal College of Music in 1884 he 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 included 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 finally was forced to resign his Oxford appointment on doctor's advice in 1908, and 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.

which seems a fitting epithet to one of England's greatest choral composers.

View the Wikipedia article on Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

Choral works

• For works at CPDL sorted alphabetically by title, see Charles Hubert Hastings Parry compositions

Sacred works

Anglican chants Double chant in E major Hymn settings (without words) Amberley Angmering Gaudium Cæleste Intercessor Laudate Dominum Rustington

Hymns & carols (with words) at CPDL Crossing the bar Father of mercies, in thy word I sing the birth Jerusalem O praise ye the Lord! praise him in the height Repton Round the Lord in glory seated Through the night of doubt and sorrow Welcome, Yule!

Other hymns and carols Fill thou my life God of all created things He is coming - 1874 O Sylvan Prophet O word of pity Hush for amid our tears

Service music at CPDL

No works currently available

Other service music

Communion Service in D - 1869 Coronation Te Deum - 1911 Evening Service in D - 1869

Evening Service No. 2 in D - 1881 Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis - Evening Service in D,1897 Morning Service in D - 1869

Magnificat in F - 1897 Te Deum and Benedictus in D - 1868 Thanksgiving Te Deum - 1900

Sacred oratorical at CPDL

No works currently available

Other sacred oratorical

Beyond these voices there is peace - 1908 Job - Oratorio, 1892 Judith or The Regeneration of Manasseh - Oratorio, 1888

King Saul - Oratorio, 1894 Arise and sing - Soprano Aria The love that casteth out fear - Sinfonia sacra, 1904

O Lord, Thou hast cast us out - Cantata, 1867 Ode on the Nativity - Ode, 1912

Other sacred works at CPDL

At the round earth's imagined corners Blest pair of Sirens Dear Lord and Father of mankind Hear my words, ye people I know my soul hath power

I was glad when they said unto me Lord, let me know mine end My soul, there is a country Never weather-beaten sail Prevent us, O Lord

Songs of Farewell There is an old belief Voces Clamantium

Other sacred works

A custo dia mastutina - Soprano Solo And all the earth shall own him Apud Dominum misericordia - 12 part Chorus Blessed is he - 1865 De profundis clamavi - 12 part Chorus

Et ipse redimet Israel - 12 part Chorus Fiant aures tuae intendes - Soprano Solo God is our hope - 1913 He delivered the poor - Soprano solo Long Since In Egypt's Plenteous Land

O Brother Man O Day of Peace that Dimly Shines Sustinuit anima mea in verbo - 12 part Chorus When Christ was borne of Mary free - 1915 Within the Manger

Secular works

Partsongs, songs, and arias at CPDL

• And yet I love her till I die  (Solo Tenor)
• Armida's Garden  (Solo Tenor)
• At her fair hands  (SATB)
• Better music ne'er was known  (SATB)
• Blow, blow, thou winter wind  (Solo Tenor)
• Bright star  (Solo Tenor)
• By Music  (Solo Baritone)
• Come pretty wag  (SATB)
• Crabbed age and youth  (Solo high)
• Descend, ye Nine!  (SATB)
• Dirge in woods  (Solo Tenor)
• England  (Unison)
• Fair Daffodils  (SATB)
• A Fairy town  (Solo Tenor)
• Follow your saint  (SATB)
• Gone were but the winter cold  (Solo Tenor)
• Good night  (Solo Tenor, Solo Soprano)
• Grapes  (Solo Tenor)
• Home of my heart  (SATB)
• How sweet the answer  (SATB)
• If I had but two little wings  (SATB)
• If thou wouldst ease thine heart  (Solo Tenor)
• In a harbour grene  (SATB)
• In praise of song  (SATB.SATB)
• Jerusalem  (Unison)
• Julia  (Solo Tenor)
• Lay a garland on my hearse  (Solo Tenor)
• Looking backward  (Solo Tenor)
• Love is a bable  (Solo Tenor)
• Love is a sickness  (SATB)
• The maiden  (Solo Tenor)
• Marian  (Solo Tenor)
• Music, when soft voices die  (SATB)
• My delight and thy delight  (SATB)
• My true love hath my heart  (Solo Tenor, solo Soprano)
• Nightfall in Winter  (Solo Tenor)
• No longer mourn for me  (Solo Tenor)
• O Love, they wrong thee much  (SATB)
• O mistress mine  (Solo Tenor)
• O never say that I was false of heart  (Solo Tenor)
• Of all the torments  (Solo Tenor)
• On a time the amorous silvy  (Solo Tenor)
• Out upon it!  (SATB,TTBB)
• Phillis  (SATB)
• The poet's song  (Unison)
• Prithee, why?  (SATB)
• Proud Maisie  (Solo Tenor, Solo Soprano)
• The sea hath many a thousand sands  (SATB)
• She is my love beyond all thought  (Solo Tenor)
• Since thou, O fondest  (SATB)
• Sorrow and pain  (SSATBB)
• A Spring Song, Op. 21 no. 2  (S)
• Sweet day, so cool  (SATB)
• Take, O take those lips away  (Solo Tenor)
• Tell me, O love  (SATB)
• That Very Wise Man, Old Aesop  (SATB, TTBB)
• There  (Solo Tenor)
• There be none of beauty's daughters  (Solo Tenor)
• There rolls the deep  (SATB)
• Thine eyes still shined for me  (Solo Tenor)
• Three Aspects  (Solo Tenor)
• Through the ivory gate  (Solo Tenor)
• To Althea from prison  (Solo Tenor)
• To Diana  (SSA)
• To Lucasta on going to the wars  (Solo Tenor)
• Turn all thy thoughts to eyes  (SATB)
• Under the greenwood tree  (Solo Tenor)
• Weep you no more  (Solo Tenor)
• A Welsh lullaby  (Solo high)
• What voice of gladness  (SATB)
• When comes my Gwen  (Solo Tenor)
• When icicles hang by the wall  (Solo Tenor)
• When lovers meet again  (Solo Tenor)
• When we two parted  (Solo Tenor)
• Whence  (Solo Tenor)
• Where shall the lover rest  (Solo Tenor)
• Whether I live  (Solo Tenor)
• Whether men do laugh or weep  (SATB)
• Who can dwell with greatness  (SSATB)
• Why so pale and wan  (Solo Tenor)
• Willow, willow, willow  (Solo Soprano, Solo Tenor)
• The wind and the leaves  (Solo SS)
• The Witches' Wood  (Solo Tenor)
• Wrong not, sweet Empress  (SATB)
• Ye little birds that sit and sing  (Solo Tenor)
• Ye thrilled me once  (SATB)
• You gentle nymphs  (SATB)

Other partsongs, songs, and arias

Brown and furry (Unison) The brown Burns of the Border (Unison) Come join the merry chorus (Unison) - 1915 A contented mind (Unison) Dreams (Unison) Fair daffodils (Mixed voices) - 1866 The fairies (Unison) Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing (Solo voice) Fear no more the heat o' the sun (Solo voice) - 1906 Fill me boy, as deep as a draught (Mixed voices) Full fathom five (Solo voice) - A Sea Dirge Golden hues of life are fled (Mixed voices) Goodnight (Unison) Hail Edward Rex (ATBB) - Unpublished Hang Fear, Cast Away Care (Male voices) Hie away (Unison) A Hymn for Aviators (Unison) - 1915 I know an Irish lass (Mixed voices) - Unpublished I know not what (Mixed voices) - Unpublished It was a lover and his lass (Solo voice) - A Spring Song La belle dame sans merci (Mixed voices) - 1914-1915 The Laird of Cockpen (Solo voice) - 1906-1907 Land to the leeward ho (Unison) - 1895

Love Wakes and Weeps (Male voices) The Mad Dog (Male voices) The merry bird sits in the tree (Solo voice) - A Contrast Merry Margaret (Solo voice) The mistletoe (Unison) More fond than Cushat Dove (Solo voice) Neptune's empire (Unison) Newfoundland (Solo voice) - First setting 1904 Oft in the stilly night (Mixed voices) - 1866 Oh the month of May (Mixed voices) - Unpublished On a day, alack the day (Solo voice) - Love's perjuries Orpheus (Male voices) The owl (Unison) Peace thou that still all fretful toil (SSA) - Unpublished The Peacock has a score of eyes (Unison) Pleased with a thought (Mixed voices) - Unpublished Ripple on (Unison) The river of life (Solo voice) - 1870 (Horace's ode 'Persices odi') (Mixed voices) - 1865 Unpublished Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Solo voice) The Soldier's Tent (Solo voice) - 1900-1901 Song of the nights (Unison)

Sorrow and song (Unison) Take O take those lips away (TTBB) - Unpublished Take, O take these lips away (Treble voices) Tell me where is fancy bred? (Mixed voices) - 1864 Unpublished There lived a sage (TTBB) - Unpublished Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air (Mixed voices) - Unpublished To night (Treble voices) Twilight (Solo voice) - 1874 Von edler Art (Solo voice) - 1900 Waving whispering trees (Mixed voices) - Unpublished The way to succeed (Unison) When evening's dusky Car (SSA) - Unpublished When fades the moon all shadowy pale (Mixed voices) - Unpublished When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (Solo voice) When to the sessions of sweet silent thought (Solo voice) Why does the azure deck the sky (Solo voice) - 1866 The wind hath such a rainy sound (Unison) Wrong not, sweet empress (Mixed voices) You'll get there (Unison)

Secular anthems and odes at CPDL

Blest pair of Sirens The chivalry of the sea Dear Lord and Father of mankind The glories of our blood and state Hear my words, ye people

I know my soul hath power I was glad when they said unto me The lotos eaters My soul, there is a country Never weather-beaten sail

Prevent us, O Lord Songs of Farewell Voces Clamantium

Secular cantatas and motets at CPDL

L'Allegro ed il Pensieroso At the round earth's imagined corners

Lord, let me know mine end The Pied Piper of Hamelin

There is an old belief

Other secular works

Agamemnon - 1900 Angel hosts, sweet love, befriend thee - 1865 The Archarnians - 1914 Autumn - 1865-1866 Beyond These Voices There Is Peace - Motet The Birds - 1883 But soon, too soon But when our country's cause But when through all the infernal bounds By music By the streams that ever flow The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses - 1885 Eton - 1891 Eton Memorial Ode - 1908

The Feather The Four Brothers He sang, and Hell consented I praise the tender flower The Love that Casteth Out Fear - Sinfonia sacra, 1904 Love To Love Calleth Man, Born Of Desire The Monstrous Sea Music the fiercest grief can charm Myriad Voiced Queen! The North Wind O Enter With Me Ode to Music - 1901 Promethius Unbound - Cantata, 1880

Rejoice, Ye Dead Rock-a-bye - Children's song book, 1893 Song of Darkness and Light - Ode, 1898 The Spring of the Year The Soul's Ransom - Psalm of the Poor, 1906 The Vision of Life - Symphonic Poem, 1907 Thee, Fair Poetry Oft Hath Sought Thou, O Queen To Me, To Me, Fair-Hearted Goddess, Come Turn, O Return! War and peace - Ode, 1903 Weathers When the morning stars together their glory sang

 
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Publications by Parry

1868 - Three Odes of Anacreon 1873 - A Garland of Shakespearian and Other Old-Fashioned Songs, Opus 21 1873 - Three Songs, Op. 12 1875 - Three Trios for Female Voices 1885-1920 - English Lyrics 1887 - Four sonnets of Shakespeare 1889 - Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day 1891 - De Profundis 1893,1896 - The Art of Music 1895 - Invocation to music, An Ode in Honour of Henry Purcell 1896 - The Evolution of the Art of Music 1897 - Six Lyrics from an Elizabethan Song Book 1897 - Six Modern Lyrics

1898 - Eight Four-Part Songs 1902 - Oxford History of Music, Volume 3: The Music of the Seventeenth Century 1909 - Six Part-Songs for SATB 1909 - Johann Sebastian Bach: The Story of the Development of a Great Personality 1909 - Four Unison Songs 1910 - Seven Part Songs for Male-Voice Choir 1911 - School Songs (1911) 1913 - Three Unison Songs 1914 - School Songs (1914) 1916 - The chivalry of the sea 1916 - Three Songs for Kookoorookoo 1918 - Three School Songs

Publications about Parry

• C. Hubert H. Parry - His Life and Music, Jeremy Dibble, Clarendon Press 1992, Oxford England ISBN 0-19-816702-4
• Parry before Jerusalem - Studies of his life and music - Bernard Benoliel, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., Aldershot, Hampshire

Recordings

• NAXOS recording of Parry and brief Biography.

External links

• Works by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry in the Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP)

• View the Wikipedia article on Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

• Another C.H.H. Parry biography and music list from The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• Lyrics of many of Parry's works from The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
• Remembrance to Parry written in "Musical Times", 1918 after his death
• Cyber Hymnal™ entry for C. H. Parry
• Rehearsal MIDI files of some of Parry's works available from John's downloadable Midi File Choral Music site
• Baroque specialist Andrew Manze hosts an on-line Charles Hubert Hastings Parry party
• Internet Movie Database - films featuring Parry's music.
• Parry as a motoring pioneer.
• Parry's works for the organ
• Parry's "Jerusalem" banned at Southwark Cathedral, England!
• Program notes for "Judith"
• Some works by Parry are available for download from Google Books, however, this is dependent on your physical location:
  • Complete score of the oratorio King Saul
  • Complete score of the Ode A Song of Darkness and Light
  • Complete score of Te Deum Laudamus
  • Complete score of the Sinfonia Sacra The Love that Casteth Out Fear