Charles Hubert Hastings Parry – författare

C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918), knighted in 1902 for his services to music, was a distinguished composer, conductor and musicologist. In the first of these roles he is best known for his settings of Blake's 'Jerusalem' and the coronation anthem 'I was glad'. He was an enthusiastic teacher and proselytiser of music, believing strongly in its ability to widen and deepen the experience of Man. This survey of European composers from Palestrina to Wagner was intended for the interested amateur, and begins with a rapid and somewhat dismissive survey of European music up to the Renaissance: each composer subsequently discussed is placed in the context of his time, and in a vigorously expressed conclusion, Parry argues for an aesthetic which recognises that some composers are great, others second-rate and yet others downright bad, and that it is essential that the listening public is able to make this distinction.

In 1893, the English composer and director of the Royal College of Music C. Hubert H. Parry published Summary of the Development of Medieval and Modern European Music, an overview of European music from the middle ages to the work of Schubert and Brahms. Intended for music students, the book summarises the major composers, their work and the social circumstances that surrounded the creation of their music. This ambitious book is divided into 12 chronological chapters, from the troubadours and plainsong, through Bach and Handel to the rise of the symphony, Mozart, and the emergence of music as an expression of nationalism. In the book's first part, Parry deftly puts music in historical context, discussing England's Wars of the Roses, and the Reformation in relation to the changing styles throughout the sixteenth century; he then explores the music of the Restoration and the rise of opera.