Musicatlas
Music
Life
While Sir Charles Hubert Parry, along with his contemporary Stanford, was a dominant figure in late 19th and early 20th century British music, his music was largely ignored after WW I being viewed as old-fashioned and irrelevant. However, both Parry and his music have recently experienced a minor revival with recordings of his symphonic and choral music. At his best, Parry’s music combines Wagnerian orchestral colors and Brahmsian symphonic logic (with a bit of Mendelssohn and a dash of Dvorak!). Parry’s most significant works are probably his symphonies, especially the second ("Cambridge") and the third ("English"). Despite their titles, both symphonies are actually non-programmatic in nature. Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Holst all acknowledged their debt to Parry’s teaching and musical examples.