First published in 1997, this volume demonstrates that through his activities as a composer, historian, lecturer and administrator, Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) played a significant role in British music during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet despite his achievements, this century has for the most part neglected both Parry’s writings and his compositions; his name is remembered by the general public for one work alone – Jerusalem. In this collection of essays, Bernard Benoliel examines some of the reasons for this neglect and reassesses some of Parry’s most important works. These essays show that it was due to the large number and diversity of his public engagements (both social and work related) that Parry’s musical achievements did not often reach the heights of creative genius of which he might otherwise have been capable. By examining Parry’s personal relationships with his family, and in particular with his wife, Maude, Benoliel reveals an immensely complex personality; a man whose private and public selves were very much shaped by the society in which he lived. The book concludes with a selection of Parry’s own published writings, with introductions by the author.

The rehabilitation of British music began with Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. Ralph Vaughan Williams assisted in its emancipation from continental models, while Gerald Finzi, Edmund Rubbra and George Dyson flourished in its independence. Stephen Town's survey of Choral Music of the English Musical Renaissance is rooted in close examination of selected works from these composers. Town collates the substantial secondary literature on these composers, and brings to bear his own study of the autograph manuscripts. The latter form an unparalleled record of compositional process and shed new light on the compositions as they have come down to us in their published and recorded form. This close study of the sources allows Town to identify for the first time instances of similarity and imitation, continuities and connections between the works.

'Jeremy Dibble has written a book which adds substantially to Stanford's reputation and which greatly enriches both British and Irish musical scholarship. It is brilliantly done.' -Irish TimesJeremy Dibble presents the first authoritative, comprehensive study of the life and works of Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), one of the most gifted and influential composers. Dibble reveals how, although perhaps best known for his church music, Stanford was also an eminent symphonist, songwriter, and author of many fine choral works. Cosmopolitan, ambitious, and pragmatic, he was untiring in his efforts to advance the cause of British music during its renaissance at the end of the nineteenth century, promoting the music of his contemporaries, and the many pupils he taught at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, including Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Howells, Bliss, Holst, and Gurney.

This controversial study isolates and identifies the intellectual, social, and political assumptions which surrounded English music in the early-20th century. The authors deconstruct the established meanings of music in this period, arguing that music was not just for the elite, but it had come to represent a stronghold of national values, reflecting the reassuring "Englishness" of middle-class life as well.

"Between these two extremes, the main body of the book deals largely with opera, from Wagner's 'Tristan' and 'Parsifal' to Harrison Birtwistle's 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. Some works have never been performed, such as Hubert Parry's 'Guenever' and Rutland Boughton's Arthurian cycle, while others have only recently been staged or revived, such as Isaac Albeniz's 'Merlin' and Ernest Chausson's 'Le roi Artus', both striking post-Wagnerian works in very different styles - 'Merlin', for instance, beginning with a passage based on Gregorian chant. The range of music is wider than one might at first suspect."--BOOK JACKET.

795 hymns without music.