C. HUBERT H. PARRY

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) was born in Bournemouth, England. He attended a preparatory school in Malvern and the Twyford Preparatory School in Hampshire. He attended Eton College and studied composition independently with George Elvey, the organist of St George's Chapel, Windsor. He then went to Exeter College, Oxford where he studied law and modern history. At first, he started a career in insurance but continued musical studies and composing. He was engaged as assistant editor for the “Dictionary of Music and Musicians” by George Grove and contributed 123 articles. He was appointed professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music and became head of the College. He established himself as an influential teacher and composer. Many regarded him finest English composer since Henry Purcell and his pupil at the RCM included Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge and John Ireland. His compositional output is great, ranging from opera to songs. His most well-known composition is “Jerusalem,” a setting of a William Blake’s where Blake implies that there may, or may not, have been a divine visit, when there was briefly heaven in England. He uses Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace. The song has become a fervent anthem heard at events from soccer matches to royal weddings.

 

All are SATB and unaccompanied unless noted in VOICING column. A noting of “div” indicates some incidental divisi within a part or parts, but not a true independent part throughout the entire work. Solos and accompaniment are also noted.

 

TITLE	VOICING	TEXT	LISTEN
An analogy (pd 2021)		x	N/A
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 1. Phillis		Elizabethan
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 2. O Love, they wrong thee much		Elizabethan
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 3. At her fair hands		Robert Jones
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 4. Home of my heart		Arthur Benson
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 5. You gentle Nymphs		Elizabethan
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 6. Come, pretty Wag, and sing		Martin Pierson
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 7. Ye thrilled me once		Robert Bridges
Eight Four-Part Songs No. 8. Better Music ne’er was known		Beaumont & Fletcher
Fair Daffodils	SSATB	Robert Herrick
Hang fear, cast away care (pd 2021)		x	N/A
In praise of song		----
Love wakes (pd 2022)		x	N/A
Out upon it		Sir John Suckling
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 1. Follow your Saint		Thomas Campion
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 2. Love is a Sickness		Samuel Daniel
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 3. Turn all thy Thoughts to Eyes		Thomas Campion
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 4. Whether Men do laugh or weep		Thomas Campion
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 5. The Sea hath many a thousand Sands		Robert Jones
Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books: 6. Tell me, O Love	SSATBB	Alfonso Ferrabosco
Six Modern Lyrics No. 1 How sweet the answer		Thomas Moore
Six Modern Lyrics No. 2 Since thou, o fondest		Robert Bridges
Six Modern Lyrics No. 3 If I had but two little wings		Samuel Taylor-Coleridge
Six Modern Lyrics No. 4 There rolls the deep		Tennyson
Six Modern Lyrics No. 5 What voice of gladness		Robert Bridges
Six Modern Lyrics No. 6 Music, when soft voices die		Shelley
Six Part Songs (1909) 1. In a Harbour Grene		Robert Wever
Six Part Songs (1909) 2. Sweet Day, so cool		George Herbert
Six Part Songs (1909) 3. Sorrow and Pain	SSATBB	Lady Charlotte Elliot
Six Part Songs (1909) 4. Wrong not, sweet Empress of my Heart		Sir Walter Raleigh
Six Part Songs (1909) 5. Prithee, why?		Sir John Suckling
Six Part Songs (1909) 6. My delight and thy delight		Robert Bridges
That very wise man		Charles Dickens