John pens a second postcard from time spent in Gloucestershire…
Parry’s big three pieces are ‘Jerusalem’, I was glad (sung at many royal occasions) and ‘Repton’ – the hymn tune used for ‘Dear Lord and Father’ of mankind’. In our next concert we are singing Parry’s Songs of Farewell, a collection of songs generally quieter in nature and with a valedictory feel.
Isabelle, Parry’s mother, died from TB twelve days after his birth having lost three other children in infancy. Hubert spent his childhood at Highnam in Gloucestershire, a country seat bought by his father Gambier after inheriting vast wealth from his own father, Thomas, a director of the East India Company. Gambier loved Italian art and decorated the ‘Holy Innocents’ church at Highnam accordingly.
We visited it a few years ago. See here for current visiting arrangements.
Parry wrote the tune for ‘Jerusalem’ in 1916, with some misgivings over how it would be used. He was proved right and instead of withdrawing the song from public use he gave the copyright to the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.
The tune sung for ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ comes from his 1888 oratorio, Judith, where the text begins, ‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land our fathers were oppressed’. In 1924 the director of music at Repton School began to use Parry’s tune for the words of the hymn.
Wikipedia states Parry’s beliefs were Darwinian and Humanist, yet he set many Christian or Biblical texts, and Sir Thomas Beecham reputedly said Parry would have set the whole Bible to music if God had let him.
I’ll give the final word to his daughter who described her father as ‘unconventional, ascetic, a radical, a freethinker, a sensitive man who suffered bouts of depression’. As with Elgar, the superficial impression gained from some of Parry’s music is far from the true person.
Buy a ticket for our next concert – including Parry’s Songs of Farewell Click here
Interested in joining the choir? Click here
Become a Friend of NCS Click here