When
I showed this CD to a friend they responded by suggesting that it would be
right up my street. Unfortunately, this comment was barbed. ‘My street’ in this
case meant ‘over-blown’ ceremonial music of the kind that uncritically lauded
Empire, glorified war and insisted that the ‘rich man [was] in his castle, The
poor man at his gate’. Now before the
reader runs off with the idea that I am politically slightly to the right of
Sir Oswald Mosley, I wish to make three comments. Firstly, Parry (and Elgar) was
a man of his time so their choice of poems to set and ideas to compose about
were different to someone living in the post-Colonial, ‘liberal’ and
cosmopolitan society of the early part of the 21st century. Secondly,
not all ‘ceremonial’ music is bad – for example, I have never been a fan of
Elgar’s The Crown of India however, I
do love Walton’s Coronation Marches. By definition, this style of music tends
to celebrate the life and times of the Royal Family or matters of ‘state.’
However, it need not be ‘tub thumping’ or ‘jingoistic’ in its mood or ethos. Often
it can be reflective and contain profound thoughts on mankind’s adventure. One
need only consider the ‘Cortege’ by Cecil Coles – ideal for Remembrance Sunday
yet full of the ‘horror of war’.
Thirdly,
there is a tendency to present Parry as being something of a caricature of a ‘Tory’
squire who was into all the trappings of the feudal society. Nothing could be
further from the truth. It is not the place to analyse the composer’s political
or moral views, however it is fair to say that he was liberal – possibly even a
‘radical.’ His religious views were typically agnostic in spite of the fact of
Delius’ suggestion that if he lived long enough he would have set the entire
Bible! H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales has noted in his introduction to the CD
liner notes that Parry, in spite of his ‘hugely energetic personality’ revealed
a ‘nervous, melancholy, even depressive temperament which infuses the inspiring
and noble sentiment of much of his music with a darker, complex hue.’
The
listener to this CD will be surprised. In spite of the cover photograph of a grand
royal procession, much of this music is introverted and deeply moving. Some of
it may have been written to celebrate national or royal events – but all of it
has a thoughtful disposition. There is nothing here for the ‘jingoist’ expects possibly
the Prom favourite ‘Jerusalem.’ However, this hymn setting has been accepted by
people of all political persuasions and none as a great national treasure.
A
good place to start this CD is the setting of John O’ Gaunt’s verse ‘England.’
This song has occasionally been mentioned in the same breath as the well-known
‘Jerusalem’ yet to my mind they could not be more different in their musical
nature.
The story goes
that after the success of the Blake setting, Gilbert Murray, the classicist and
Ernest Walker, the composer, asked Parry to make a setting of John O’ Gaunt’s famous
monologue from Act II of Shakespeare’s play Richard
II. (This royal throne of Kings, this sceptred island) However, there is nothing bombastic about
this beautiful unison song – if anything it is undemonstrative and reflective,
with a greater emphasis being on the sentiment of the final words ‘Grant, Lord,
that England …May be renown’d through all recorded ages/ For Christian service
and true Chivalry’. Jeremy Dibble has
noted that ‘England’ is about more than just flying the flag – ‘its rousing
tune expresses a sense of vision, self-sacrifice and hope, typical of Parry’s
own outlook.’
‘Jerusalem’ is
given a largely thoughtful performance here.
This song, beloved by the vast majority of the nation, is usually heard
in the ‘opulent’ Elgar orchestration. However, the original Parry song has
slightly less grand aspirations. The composer suggested that the first verse
ought to be sung by a soprano solo with the second sung by ‘all available
voices.’ Formerly composed as a ‘choral
song’ with only a piano accompaniment, Parry orchestrated it right at the end
of his life for a Suffrage Demonstration Concert on 13 March 1918 at the
Queen’s Hall. My only complaint is the
excessive length of the final word (Land) sung by the choir. This is at
variance with my score of the work.
The nation
collectively heard the ‘Wedding March’ from Parry’s incidental music to the
Greek comedy, The Birds by Aristophanes
at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; it was played just before
the arrival of Her Majesty the Queen. For Parry enthusiasts this extract had been available
on a Lyrita recording featuring Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic
Orchestra [SRCD220]. However,
there has been no recording (to my knowledge) of the entire score. The present performing edition has been
prepared for performance by Philip Brookes.
The Birds was produced by the Cambridge
University Amateur Dramatic Club in November 1893. Jeremy Dibble has suggested that this music
is full of ‘humour and light-heartedness’ and notes that the score is ‘rich in
artifice and invention.’ I enjoyed this
music. I guess that knowledge of the Aristophanes play may be of some help to
the listeners, however all these numbers stand well on their own account. I was especially attracted to the gentle ‘Entr’acte’,
the ‘cheeky’ waltz, and the beautiful ‘Intermezzo’. All these display Parry’s skill at musical
design and orchestration at their best.
I guess the
piece that gave my friend the greatest cause for concern about the political
correctness of this CD was the short ode entitled The Glories of Blood and State. I believe that they imagined Parry
indulging in some idealist ‘Brooke-ian’ ‘pro patria mori’ sentiment. However, I
believe that nothing could be further from the truth about the intentions of
this piece. This is an early work dating
from 1883, some three years after the composer’s broke the mould of dissipation
in English music with his Wagnerian cantata Prometheus
Unbound [I add, that this ground-breaking work probably does not represent
the ‘renaissance’ of British music, but just the realisation that it was equal
to the German hegemony] The present work is a setting of a poem by the English
author James Shirley (1596-1666).
Charles Lamb summed up this writer’s career with the damning fact the he
‘claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any
transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of
whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions
in common.’ The funeral dirge from his play ‘The Contention of Ajax and
Ulysses’ was regarded as a meditation on the fact that death is a leveller-
kings and peasants are subject to the same laws of nature – ‘There is no armour
against fate’. The exposition of the
music is excellent. There is a Brahmsian feel to this music that reflects
Parry’s love the the Deutsches Requiem:
Wagner’s ghost has [almost] been laid to rest.
Perhaps anyone still worried about Parry and his ‘tub-thumping’ should
mediate on the last line of the poem – ‘Only the actions of the just/Smell
sweet, and blossom in their dust’.
Sir Henry Wood
wrote in in his fascinating My Life of
Music (1938) that ‘one work we produced I thought was going to live –
Parry’s Magnificat – but it has now
dropped out of the concert repertoire. I have never been able to understand why’.
It is a sentiment with which I strongly agree: I believe that the Magnificat is a masterpiece. This work
was composed for the 1897 Three Choirs Festival and was duly performed there on
15 September. The piece has one primary exemplar: Bach’s Magnificat of 1732-35; however, the listener will feel that much of
the strength of this music is similar to the massive contrapuntal constructions
of Blest Pair of Sirens which was
completed ten years earlier. They may
also consider that there are hints of Brahms in these pages. The work is conceived in five sections: the
first and last being composed for soprano, chorus and orchestra, the second and
fourth are for the soloists alone with the middle section being composed for
chorus.
I believe that
the listener will find this setting extremely satisfying for Parry has managed
to balance his forces in a near-perfect manner. The ‘aggressive’ parts of the
the text are balanced with exquisite introspective moments. Lyrical music is
counterpoised with ‘contrapuntal fertility and rich choral textures.’ Some of
the soprano soloist’s music is reminiscent of Brahms German Requiem and certain passages have more of an operatic,
rather than liturgical, mood to them.
It is
interesting that Parry drew the text from the Vulgate Latin Bible rather than
use an English translation such as the Book of Common Prayer: it would be
instructive to know why. After the first
performance, Parry dedicated the work to Queen Victoria.
In 1911, Hubert Parry
was commissioned to compose a liturgical Te Deum for the Coronation of King
George V. This was in addition to the well-known anthem ‘I was Glad’. This work does display the ‘pageantry,
ceremony and grandeur’ of this important national occasion. This mood was
reinforced by the use of the same six trumpets that were required for the
anthem. Yet throughout this work, there
is a more serious note: tenderness and solemnity are never far away. Parry seems to be well-aware of the more
profound and numinous qualities of the Coronation Service. He weaves the well-known tunes ‘St Anne’ and ‘Old
100th’ into the texture of the work. This work is now a ‘concert’ piece: I do not
believe that it could be used in the context of a religious ceremony – no
matter how ‘high.’ It is a worthy piece
that I find both exhilarating and moving.
The CD is an ideal
production. From the highly imaginative and packed programme, through the
superb performances by the BBC National Chorus of Wales and the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales the soprano Amanda Roocroft and conductor Neeme Järvi. The
sound quality of this disc is excellent. The liner notes are a model of their
kind, however that is only to be expected from the champion of Parry ‘n
Stanford, Professor Jeremy Dibble of Durham University.
When I look at
the catalogue of Parry’s music and see works like the great Fourth Symphony,
the delightful evocation of childhood in the Shulbrede Tunes and the celebration of the composer’s yacht in the ‘Wanderer’
Fantasia and Fugue for organ, I see a composer, who, far from relishing in any
kind of false ‘my country right or wrong’ attitude was a thoughtful man: The
Prince of Wales notes that he took ‘a wide interest in politics, the Arts,
science and the most current philosophical discussion of his time…’ Parry was a
complex character: this complexity is revealed in this CD.
Finally, my
friend was wrong. This is not a CD of ‘jingoistic’ music: there is no sense of ‘tub-thumping’
or what current-day political correctness would find abhorrent. It is a moving tribute to one of Britain great
composers. It is good that we are now beginning to (re) appreciate that fact.
Track Listing:
Track Listing:
Te Deum (1911) England’ (1918) The
Birds of Aristophanes Suite from the incidental music for the Cambridge
Greek Play (1883) ‘Jerusalem’ (1916) The Glories of Our Blood
and State: Funeral Ode by James Shirley (1883) Magnificat
(1897) Amanda Roocroft (soprano) BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC
National Orchestra of Wales/Neeme Järvi
CHANDOS CHAN10740
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this
review was first published.
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