Parry , Sir , Charles Hubert Hastings , 1848-1918 , Knight , composer and musical writer

Sir Hubert Parry, born Bournemouth, 27 Feb 1848; educated Twyford School, near Winchester, Eton College; B Mus, 1866; read law and modern history, Exeter College, Oxford; studied in Stuttgart with Henry Hugo Pierson, 1867; worked at Lloyd's of London as an underwriter; took lessons with William Sterndale Bennett and Edward Dannreuther; composed works for piano for concerts at Dannreuther's home during the 1870s; engaged by George Grove as sub-editor for the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to which Parry contributed more than 100 articles; appointed by Grove as Professor of Musical History, Royal College of Music (RCM), 1883; during the 1880s created four symphonies and a symphonic suite and an unsuccessful attempt at opera; the success of his ode 'Blest Pair of Sirens' brought commissions from provincial festivals for choral music, including 'Judith' (1888), 'Ode on St Cecilia's Day' (1889), 'L'Allegro ed Il Pensieroso' (1890), 'The Lotos-Eaters', (1892), 'Job' (1892) and 'King Saul' (1894); worked with Robert Bridges for the Purcell bicentenary on the ode 'Invocation to Music', 1895; composed a setting of the Magnificat in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 1897; succeeded Grove as Director of the RCM, 1895; knighted, 1897; collaborated with Bridges on 'A Song of Darkness and Light' (1898); appointed Heather Professor of Music, Oxford, 1900 (held until 1908); created a baronet, 1902; composed 'ethical oratorios' 'Voces clamantium' (1903), 'The Love that Casteth out Fear' (1904), 'The Soul's Ransom' (1906), 'The Vision of Life' (1907); composed settings for Dunbar's 'Ode on the Nativity' (1912) and Bridges' 'The Chivalry of the Sea' (1916), and the motets 'Songs of Farewell' (1914-1915); died Rustington, Sussex, 7 October, 1918. Publications: these include, as well as his numerous articles for journals and for the Grove Dictionary, Studies of Great Composers (London, 1886); The Art of Music (London, 1893; enlarged as The Evolution of the Art of Music, London, 1896); Summary of the History and Development of Mediaeval and Modern European Music (London, 1893); Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (New York and London, 1909); Style in Musical Art (London, 1911) [collected Oxford lectures].