1848–1918

Introduction

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Born: Feb­ru­ary 27, 1848, Bourne­mouth, Eng­land.

Died: Oc­to­ber 7, 1918, near Lit­tle­hamp­ton, Eng­land.

Buried: Cha­pel of the Most Ex­cel­lent Or­der of the Brit­ish Em­pire, St. Paul’s Ca­thed­ral, Lon­don, Eng­land.

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Biography

While a stu­dent at Eton, Par­ry took mu­sic les­sons from George El­vey. The in­struct­ion was so suc­cess­ful that Par­ry earned a Ba­che­lor’s of Mu­sic from Ox­ford at age 18.

After gra­du­a­tion, he worked for three years as a clerk at the in­sur­ance com­pa­ny of Lloyds of Lon­don.

He pub­lished his first or­ches­tral work in 1878 (Pi­ano Con­cer­to in F# Mi­nor), and went on to com­pose a wide va­ri­ety of works: or­a­to­rios, li­bret­tos, cham­ber piec­es, can­ta­tas, odes, cho­ral works and so­lo songs.

In 1883, Par­ry be­came a teach­er at the Roy­al Col­lege of Mu­sic, and rose to be its se­cond di­rect­or (1894–1918).

He was knight­ed in 1898, and made a bar­o­net in 1903.

His set­ting for Mil­ton’s Blest Pair of Sir­ens, and his Je­ru­sa­lem were sung at the wed­ding of Bri­tain’s Prince Will­iam and Ca­ther­ine Mid­dle­ton in West­min­ster Ab­bey, Lon­don, Ap­ril 29, 2011.

Works

Sources

Music