by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, Ho, HU, MU, PA, PE
The Pergola of Composition “There is also a setting of Horace’s Ode ‘Persicos odi puer apparatus,’ for A.T.B.B. ‘written in school [Eton College] , February 22, 1865’ ”. ~ Emily Daymond, 77 As strange as ancient Persia might have seemed To sixteen-year-old Parry...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MA, MU, PA, SC, SH, WI
With a Pretty Ding, Dong, Bell “This has a very pretty madrigalian ‘Ding, dong, bell’ ending.” ~ Emily Daymond, 77 At 15 Hubert tried his hand at straight Poetic madrigal, a Shakespeare song, In “Tell Me, Where is Fancy Bred?” The gate Of fancy is our eyes and where...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, MU, PA
O Head Full of Blood and Wounds Before his fourteenth year the boy wrote down A melody like Bach’s “O Haupt voll Blut Und Wunden,” but the sixth note did not frown. Instead it mounted up. It took a route More positive. Prophetic nearly, one Might say, when looking...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
Prime [I suggest you read this poem in tandem with the sonnet called “7/8” in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] The first real piece by Parry, or the one He called his first, reveals through notes his clear And sweet imagination. He has...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA, SC
Strength through Dedication At Eton Parry moved to start the task Of bettering his pieces written there, An early sign which shows that he would ask Himself to work perfection through his care And dent of work, a tough composer from The start—and strained to win at...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
“Thoughts of . . . Summer half, 1865” A piece just eight bars long is pregnant with Vague meaning and with secrecy. A man (Not quite) is burdened with Victorian myth Of sex as tight as whalebone girdles can Impose on him. On top of that he’s just a boy At school...
