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Hubert Parry
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1848 births
   
1918 deaths
   
20th century classical composers
   
english composers
   
romantic composers
   
english musicologists
   
alumni of exeter college, oxford
   
old etonians
   
baronets in the baronetage of the united kingdom
   
newfoundland and labrador music
   
people from bournemouth
   
people from gloucestershire
   
academics of the royal college of music
   
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Born in 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 Oratorio s ''Judith'' ( 1888 ) and ''Job'' ( 1892 ), the Psalm -setting ''De Profundis'' ( 1891 ) and ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin'' ( 1905 ). His Orchestra l works from this period include four Symphonies , a set of Symphonic Variations in E minor, 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 Cantata s", 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 ).