Tuesday, October 3, 2017

English suites no. 5

This is one of the suites that I had in mind to present to you when I started this series. It's by Hubert Parry, who was Vaughan Williams's composition teacher (and one of Holst's too). Though he was respected by his students, Parry is rather forgotten today, at least outside of Britain where he's remembered mostly for his grand choral setting of Blake's "Jerusalem", but he was one of the bright names of British music of the late 19C, along with Arthur Sullivan, and unlike Sullivan he survived a ways into the 20C.

The English Suite is a late work, not published till after his 1918 death, but it's an absolute charmer, with an especially cheerful finale. The movements are Prelude (0:00), In Minuet Style (3:48), Sarabande (6:44), Caprice (10:00), Pastoral (12:38), Air (15:16), and Frolic (17:16).

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