Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

From ChoralWiki

Contents 1 Life 2 List of choral works 2.1 Service Music 2.2 Hymns 3 Publications 4 Recordings 5 External links

Life

Born: 27 February 1848

Died: 7 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. He 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. 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 Shirleys ode, Tile Glories of our Blood and State, premiered at Gloucester in 1883, and the Partila for violin and pianoforte, which was 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 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. 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 orchestral works from this period 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 Wikipedia article for Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

Another C. H. H. Parry biography and music list.

List of choral works

• Angel Hosts, Sweet Love, Befriend Thee - (Lord Francis Hervey) - (1865)
• The Birds - Music to accompany the Greek Play by Aristophanes - (1883) Cambridge

• A Garland of Shakesperian and Other Old - Fashioned Songs, Opus 21 - (1873)

1. Love's Perjuries / On a Day, Alack the Day - (William Shakespeare)

2. A Spring Song / It was a lover and his lass; with a hey and a ho, and a hey nonino! - (William Shakespeare)

3. A Contrast / The merry Bird Sits in the Tree - (Anonymous)

4. Concerning Love / Love is a Sickness - (Samuel Daniel)

5. A Sea Dirge / Full Fathom Five - (William Shakespeare

6. Merry Margaret - (Skelton)

• And all the earth shall own him
  
• And did those feet in ancient time / Jerusalem, Op. 208 - (William Blake)
• Autumn - (Thomas Hood) - (1865)
• Beyond these Voices there is Peace - (1908)
• Blest pair of Sirens - 4 part   (  Sibelius4 )
• Blest Pair Of Sirens - 8 part   (   Sibelius4  )  
• Brown and furry - (Christina Georgina Rossetti)
• Crabbed Age and Youth / cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance - (William Shakespeare)
• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind - ( )
• De Profundis - (1891) - Psalm Setting

• Eight Four-part Songs - (1898)

1. Phyllis - (From an Elizabetian Song Book)

2. O Love, They Wrong Thee Much - (From An Elizabethian Song Book) - (2 editions available)

3. At Her Fair Hands - (Robert Jones)

4. Home of My Heart - (Arthur Benson)

5. You gentle nymphs - (From An Elizabethian Song Book)   (  Sibelius4 )

6. Come Pretty Wag - (M. Pierson)

7. Ye Thrilled Me Once - (Robert Seymour Bridges)

8. Better Music Ne'er Were Known - (Francis Beaumont and Fletcher)

• English Lyrics - [ 1881 - 1920 ] - 74 songs in total - Published in 12 sets
  

A collection of English Lyrics volumes 1 - 9 are available as PDF files from the University of Rochester: here .

EL Set 1 - (1881 - 1883) - published 1885 -

1. My True Love Hath My Heart - (Sir Philip Sidney)   (   Sibelius4  )  

2. Good Night! ah! no; the hour is ill that severs those it should unite - (Percy Bysshe Shelly)

3. Where Shall The Lover Rest, whom the fates sever from his ture maiden’s breast - (Sir Walter Scott)

4. Willow, Willow, Willow / The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, sing all a green willow - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

EL Set 2 - (1874 - 1885) - published 1886 -

1. O Mistress Mine - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

2. Take, O Take Those Lips Away - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. No longer mourn for me - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

5. When Icicles Hang by the Wall - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

EL Set 3 - (1895) - published 1895 -

1. To Lucasta, on going to the wars - (Richard Lovelace)

2. If Thou Would’st Ease Thine Heart of love and all its smart, then sleep, dear, sleep - (Thomas Lovell Beddoes)

3. To Althea from prison - (Richard Lovelace)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. Why so pale and wan? - (Sir John Suckling)

5. Through the Ivory Gate - (Julian Sturgis)   (   Sibelius4  )  

6. Of All The Torments - (William Walsh)

EL Set 4 - (1895 - 1896) - published 1896 -

1. Thine eyes still shined for me (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

2. When lovers meet again - (Langdon Elwyn Mitchell)

3. When we two parted - (George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron)

4. Weep you no more - (Anonymous 16th Century)   (   Sibelius4  )  

5. There Be None Of Beauty’s Daughters with a magic like thee; and like music on the waters is thy sweet voice to me - (John Keats)

6. Bright Star! would I were stedfast as thou art - not in lone splendour hung aloft the night - (John Keats)

EL Set 5 - (1876 - 1901) - published 1902 -

1. A Stray Nymph Of Dian / I went ahunting with Queen Dian’s maids; our sandals, bright with dew, swept through the grass - (Julian Sturgis)

2. Proud Maisie / is in the wood - (Sir Walter Scott)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. Crabbed Age and Youth - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. Lay a garland on my hearse - (Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher)   (   Sibelius4  )  

5. Love and laughter - (Arthur Butler)

6. A girl to her class - (Julian Sturgis)

7. A Welsh Lullaby / Sleep, sleep, all nature now is steeping her sons in sleep - (E. O. Jones)   (   Sibelius4  )  

EL Set 6 - (1903) - published 1903 -

1. When Comes My Gwen - (Mynyddog, translated by E. O. Jones)   (   Sibelius4  )  

2. And yet I love her till I die / There is a lady sweet and kind, was never face so pleased my mind - (Anonymous)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. Love is a bable - (Anonymous)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. A Lover's garland - (Arthur Perceval Graves)

5. At the Hour the Long Day Ends - (Arthur Perceval Graves)

6. Under the Greenwood Tree - (William Shakespeare)   (   Sibelius4  )  

EL Set 7 - (1888 - 1906) - published 1907 -

1. On a Time the Amorous Silvy - (Anonymous)   (   Sibelius4  )  

2. Follow a Shadow - (Ben Jonson)

3. Ye Little Birds That Sit And Sing - (Thomas Heywood)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. O never say that I was false of heart - (William Shakespeare)

5. Julia / Some ask'd me where the rubies grew - (Robert Herrick)   (   Sibelius4  )  

6. Sleep / Beautiful up from the deeps of the solemn sea cometh sweet Sleep - (Julian Sturgis)

EL Set 8 - (1904 - 1906) - published 1907 -

1. Whence - (Julian Sturgis)   (   Sibelius4  )  

2. Nightfall in Winter / Cold is the air - (Langdon Elwyn Mitchell)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. Marian - (George Meredith)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. Dirge In Woods / A wind sways the pines, and below not a breath of wild air - (George Meredith)   (   Sibelius4  )  

5. Looking Backward / O my child love, my love of long ago - (Julian Sturgis)   (   Sibelius4  )  

6. Grapes / Come, boy Bacchus, a bunch of grapes - (Julian Sturgis)   (   Sibelius4  )  

EL Set 9 - (1908) - published 1909 -

1. Three Aspects - (Mary Coleridge)

2. A Fairy Town - (Mary E. Coleridge)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. The Witches' Wood - (Mary E. Coleridge)   (   Sibelius4  )  

4. Whether I Live - (Mary E. Coleridge)   (   Sibelius4  )  

5. Armida's Garden / I have been there before thee, O my love! - (Mary Coleridge)

6. The maiden - (Mary Coleridge)

7. There - (Mary Coleridge)

EL Set 10 - (1909) published 1918.

1. My heart is like a singing bird - (Christina Georgina Rossetti)

2. Gone Were But the Winter Cold - (Allan Cunningham) - (1916)   (   Sibelius4  )  

3. A Moment of Farewell - (Julian Sturgis)

4. The Child and the Twilight - (L. E.Mitchell)

5. From a city window - (L. E.Mitchell)

6. The Ungentle Guest / One Silent Night of Late - (Herrick)

EL Set 11 - (1910 - 1918) - published 1920.

1. One Golden Thread - (Julia Chatterton)

2. What part of dread eternity - (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry ? )

3. The Spirit of the Spring - (Alfred Perceval Graves)

4. The Blackbird - (Alfred Perceval Graves)

5. The Faithful Lover - (Alfred Perceval Graves)

6. If I Might Ride on Puissant Wing - (Julian Sturgis)

7. Why Art Thou Slow, thou rest of trouble, Death, to stop a wretch’s breath - (Massinger)

8. She is my love / beyond all thought - (Alfred Perceval Graves)

EL Set 12 - Works of various dates/some very early - published 1920 -

1. When the Dew is Falling - (Julia Chatterton)

2. To Blossoms / Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, why do ye fall so fast? - (Herrick)

3. Rosaline / Like to the clear in highest sphere - (Thomas Lodge)

4. Resurrection / When the Sun's Great Orb - (H. Warner)

5. Dream Pedlary - (Thomas Lovell Beddoes)

6. A Lament / O World ! O Life ! O Time ! - (Percy Bysshe Shelly)

7. The Sound of Hidden Music - (Julia Chatterton)

• Eton - (1891)
• Fair Daffodils - (Herrick) - (1866)
• Fear No More The Heat O’ The Sun, nor the furious winter's rages - (1906)

• Four Sonnets of Shakespeare - (1887)

1. When In Disgrace With Fortune / And Men’s Eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state

2. Farewell, Thou Art Too Dear / For My Possessing, and like enough thou know’st thy estimate

3. Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate

4. When To The Sessions Of Sweet Silent Thought, / I summon up remembrance of things past

• Hear my words, ye people - (1894)   (  Sibelius4 )
• How sweet the Answer - ( )
• He Is Coming - (Gladstone) - (1874) - Christmas Carol
• I Praise the Tender Flower - (Robert Seymour Bridges)
• I sing the Birth
• I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me   (  Sibelius2 )
• In Praise of Song - (Parry ? )

• Invocation to music - An Ode in Honour of Henry Purcell - (Robert Seymour Bridges)
  

1. Intro. Myriad Voiced Queen!: Moderato/Turn, O Return!: Allegretto Tranquillo

2. Thee, Fair Poetry Oft Hath Sought: Allegretto Tranquillo

3. The Monstrous Sea: Maestoso Energico

4. Love To Love Calleth: Andante Appassionato

5. Dirge. To Me, To Me, Fair-Hearted Goddess, Come

6. Man, Born Of Desire: Moderato/Rejoice, Ye Dead, Where'er Your Spirits Dwell

7. O Enter With Me The Gates Of Delight: Allegro Vivace

8. Chor: 'Thou, O Queen Of Sinless Grace': Allegro Vivo

• Jerusalem / And did those feet in ancient time Op. 208 - (William Blake) - Hymn - (1916)
• Job - (1892) - Oratorio
• Judith - (1888) - Oratorio
• King Saul - (1894) - Oratorio
• La belle dame sans merci - (John Keats) - (1914 - 1915)
• Long Since In Egypt's Plenteous
• O Brother Man - ( )
• O Day of Peace that Dimly Shines - ( )
• O Lord, Thou hast cast us out - Cantata - (1867)
• Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day - (1889)
• Ode on the Nativity - (1912)
• Oft in the Stilly Night - (Thomas Moore)
• Phillis - ( )
• Prevent us, O Lord   (   )
• Promethius Unbound - (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
• Proud Maisie - (Sir Walter Scott)

• Seven Part Songs for Male-Voice Choir: - (1910) - Scored ATB

1. Hang Fear, Cast Away Care - (Parry)

2. Love Wakes and Weeps - (Scott)

3. The Mad Dog - (Goldsmith)

4. That Very Wise Man, Old Aesop - (Charles Dickens)

5. Orpheus - (Parry)

6. Out Opon It ! - (Sir John Suckling)

7. An Analogy - (Parry)

• Six Ethical Cantatas - Op. 12 - (1906 - 07)

1. War and peace - (1903)

2. Vox Clamantium - (1903)

3. The Love that Casteth Out Fear - (1904)

4. The Soul's Ransom - (1906)

5. The Vision of Life - (1907)

6. Beyond These Voices There Is Peace - (1908)

• Six Lyrics from an Elizabetian Song Book - (1897)

1. Follow Your Saint - (Thomas Campion

2. Love is a sickness - (Samuel Daniel)   (  Sibelius4 )

3. Turn All Thy Thoughts to Eyes - (Thomas Campion)

4. Whether Men Do Laugh or Weep - (From an Elizabethian Song Book)

5. The Sea Has Many a Thousand Sands - (From an Elizabethian Song Book)

6. Tell Me, O Love - (From an Elizabethian Song Book)

• Six Modern Lyrics: - (1897)

1. How Sweet the Answer - (Moore)

2. Since Thou, O Fondest and Truest - (Robert Seymour Bridges)   (  Sibelius4  )  

3. If I Had But Two Little Wings - (Coleridge)

4. There Rolls the Deep - (Lord Alfred Tennyson)   (  Finale 2000 )

5. What Voice of Gladness - (Robert Seymour Bridges)

6. Music, When Soft Voices Die - (Percy Bysshe Shelley) - (1897)   (  Sibelius4  )

• Six Part Songs: - (1909)

1. In a Harbour Grene - (R. Wever)

2. Sweet Day, So Cool - (Herbert)

3. Sorrow and Pain - (Lady C. Elliot)

4. Wrong Not, Sweet Empress - (Sir Walter Raleigh)

5. Prithee, Why ? - (Sir John Suckling)

6. My delight and thy delight - (Robert Seymour Bridges)   (  Sibelius4  )

• Scenes from Prometheus Unbound - (1880)
• Song of Darkness and Light - Ode - (1898)
• Sonnet XXIX - (William Shakespeare)

• Songs of Farewell - (1918) - ( 6 songs, see individual listings. )

1. My Soul, There is a Country - (3 editions available)

2. I Know My Soul Hath Power   (  Sibelius4 )

3. Never Weather-Beaten Sail   (  Sibelius4 )

4. There Is An Old Belief   (  Sibelius4 )

5. At The Round Earths Imagined Corners   (  Sibelius4 )

6. Lord, let me know mine end   (  Sibelius4 )

• Three Trios for Female Voices - (1875)

1. To Night - (Hamilton Aide)

2. To Diana - (Ben Johnson)

3. Take, O Take These Lips Away - (Shakespeare)

• Tell me Where is Fancy Bred ? - (William Shakespeare) - (1864)
• Tell me, O Love - ( )
• The Chivalry of the Sea - (Robert Seymour Bridges)
• The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses - (1885)
• The Feather - (Walter de la Mare)
• The Four Brothers - (Walter de la Mare)
• The Lotus Eaters - (Lord Alfred Tennyson) - (1892)
• The North Wind - (William Ernest Henley)
• The Peacock has a Score of Eyes - (Christina Georgina Rossetti)
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin - (1905)   (  NoteWorthy Composer )
• The river of life - (Lord Pembroke) - (1870)
• The Soldier's Tent - (Alma Strettell) - (after Volkslieder - from 'The Bard of Dimbovitza')
• The Vision of Life - (1907)

• Three Songs, Op. 12 - (1873)

1. The Poet's Song - (Lord Alfred Tennyson)

2. More fond than Cushat Dove - (Thomas Ingoldsby)

3. Music / when soft voices die - (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

• Three Odes of Anacreon - (1868 - 1878) - (Translated by T. Moore)

1. Away, away, you men of rules

2. Fill me boy, as deep as a draught

3. Golden hues of life are fled

• Two Carols - (1915)

1. I Sing the Birth

2. Welcome, Yule !   (  Sibelius )

• Twilight - (Lord Pembroke) - (1874)
• Von edler Art - (From a Nurenberg Song Book - 1549) - (Translated by Paul England) - (1900)
• Weathers - (Thomas Hardy)
• When Christ was borne of Mary free - (Harlean Manuscript) - (1915)
• When the Morning Stars Together Their Glory Sang - ( )
• Who Can Dwell With Greatness ? - (Dobson) - (1900)
• Within the Manger - ( )

Service Music

• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis / Evening Service in D - (1897)
• Thanksgiving Te Deum - (1900)

Hymns

Tunes Laudate Dominum

Harmonizations Amberley   (  NoteWorthy Composer Sibelius 4 ) Angmering   (  NoteWorthy Composer Sibelius 4 ) Gaudium Cæleste   (  NoteWorthy Composer ) Intercessor   (  NoteWorthy Composer ) Laudate Dominum   (  NoteWorthy Composer ) Repton   (  NoteWorthy Composer ) Rustington   (  NoteWorthy Composer )

Hymns (tune, harmony & words) Jerusalem - (3 editions available) O word of pity - (0 editions available) Fill thou my life - (0 editions available)

Click here to search for composer on ChoralWiki.

Publications

• C. H. Parry's book on Johann Sebastian Bach - (1909) here .
• C. H. Parry's book "The Art of Music" - (1893 and 1896) here.
• C. H. Parry's book "The Music of the Seventeenth Century" - (1902)
• C. H. Parry's book "The Evolution of the Art of Music" - (1896) here .
• C. H. Parry's book "Oxford History of Music" - (1907) here .

Recordings

• Recording of many of the "English Lyrics" songs: PARRY: ENGLISH LYRICS AND SONGS - Label: Hyperion - Cat: CDA67044 - Date: 12/08/1998 - Distrib: Harmonia Mundi

External links

• Lyrics of many of Parry's works available here.
• Remembrance to Parry written in 1918 after his death in "Musical Times"] available here.
• CyberHymnal entry for C. H. Parry available here.
• Rehearsal MIDI files of some of Parry's works here.
• Complete score of the Oratorio - "King Saul" available here.
• Complete score of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" available here.
• Complete score of the Ode - "A Song of Darkness and Light" available here.
• Complete score of the Te Deum - "Te Deum Laudamus" available here.
• Complete score of the Sinfonia Sacra - "The Love that Casteth Out Fear" available here.

• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 1 - (1881-83) -
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 2 - (1886-87) -
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 3 - (1895) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 4 - (1895) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 5 - (1902) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 6 - (1902) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 7 - (1907) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 8 - (1907) -----
• Complete score of the Art Songs - "English Lyrics - Set 9 - (1909) -----