0:00:02 > 0:00:06# Dear Lord and Father of mankind Forgive our foolish ways... #
0:00:06 > 0:00:09I remember so well singing that at school.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11# ..our rightful mind
0:00:11 > 0:00:18# In purer lives thy service find... #
0:00:18 > 0:00:21They're hummable things, a lot of his tunes, and people...
0:00:21 > 0:00:29I mean, they're well-known, almost household tunes, but nobody has any idea where they've come from.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34# Rejoice in His word... #
0:00:34 > 0:00:37And I think Jerusalem, certainly, is such a favourite one.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44We know the tune so well, but not the name of the man who wrote it.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52Sir Hubert Parry is one of the great underrated, under-appreciated,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54special British composers.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Somebody introduced me to his symphonies.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01It was a revelation to me - he wrote symphonies?!
0:01:01 > 0:01:04"Well, hang on a minute, how is it possible that somebody who can write
0:01:04 > 0:01:09"this sort of music is just completely left out?"
0:01:10 > 0:01:14It made me determined to discover more about him.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18I found a complex man with a mind of his own,
0:01:18 > 0:01:23who challenged his upbringing and, in love, let his heart rule his head.
0:01:23 > 0:01:29It's given new meaning and significance to music that has been with me almost all my life.
0:01:29 > 0:01:41# In England's green and pleasant land. #
0:01:41 > 0:01:45BELLS PEAL
0:01:45 > 0:01:47CHEERING
0:01:50 > 0:01:54When it comes to the coronation of my mama,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56what was I, I suppose I was four.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00I sort of vaguely remember I was up in a gallery,
0:02:00 > 0:02:06looking down, with my grandmother and my aunt.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10I only wish I could remember having heard
0:02:10 > 0:02:14I Was Glad by Sir Hubert Parry!
0:02:14 > 0:02:17But at least I was there!
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Maybe it was because I heard it at the coronation without realising, but it is so -
0:02:21 > 0:02:24well, I don't know, it sounds silly, really, trite - uplifting.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31That piece was written especially for the coronation of my great-great-grandfather,
0:02:31 > 0:02:32King Edward VII.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34"I was glad when they said unto me,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38"'We will go into the house of the Lord.'"
0:02:38 > 0:02:42It's used at every coronation and at some weddings too.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51If you're coming into the abbey and you have to walk up the aisle,
0:02:51 > 0:02:56and there are an awful lot of people peering at you,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00some pieces of music literally do waft you up the aisle
0:03:00 > 0:03:07and it's so marvellous that you're sort of carried along on this wave of music.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13And that's what I think is so brilliant about this piece,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17giving you all those tingles up the spine and tears in the eyes.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31# I was glad
0:03:31 > 0:03:37# Glad when they said unto me
0:03:37 > 0:03:42# "We will go
0:03:42 > 0:03:47# "We will go
0:03:47 > 0:03:49# "We will go
0:03:49 > 0:03:58# "Into the house of the Lord."
0:04:03 > 0:04:12- # Our feet shall stand in thy gates - Our feet shall stand...
0:04:12 > 0:04:18# O Jerusalem
0:04:18 > 0:04:26- # Our feet shall stand - Our feet shall stand
0:04:26 > 0:04:35- # Shall stand in thy gates - Shall stand in thy gates
0:04:35 > 0:04:42- # Our feet shall stand - Our feet shall stand
0:04:42 > 0:04:47# Shall stand in thy gates
0:04:47 > 0:04:57# O Jerusalem
0:04:57 > 0:05:02It has an extraordinary capacity to lift the spirits, this particular piece of music.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05It's timeless, really, isn't it, in that sense?
0:05:05 > 0:05:17# Jerusalem is builded
0:05:17 > 0:05:29# As a city
0:05:29 > 0:05:38- # That is at unity - That is at unity
0:05:38 > 0:05:49# In itself. #
0:05:55 > 0:05:59I Was Glad is probably one of the greatest ceremonial pieces
0:05:59 > 0:06:01that's ever been written.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03There's that funny moment in the score where it says,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06"The Queen's scholars of Westminster School
0:06:06 > 0:06:11"shall perform the vivats and if you're not at a coronation, you're not allowed to perform this,"
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and there's an asterisk and then you have to skip a page.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17The vivats, the "Long live the King"
0:06:17 > 0:06:20have to be praising the King by name,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and also his Queen, if he has one.
0:06:23 > 0:06:30So, for 1902, "Long live King Edward, Long live Queen Alexandra."
0:06:30 > 0:06:37The Queen came in first, "Vivat Regina Alexandra, vivat Regina Ed...
0:06:37 > 0:06:39"vivat Rex Eduardus."
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And Parry wrote vivats for both of those.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46And now, of course, that forms a central pivot in the anthem.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Our own Queen, just, "Long live Queen Elizabeth,"
0:06:49 > 0:06:52because Prince Philip is not King.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54FANFARE
0:06:57 > 0:07:04It's a magical moment, almost a football shout, in the middle of this very stirring service.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14# Vivat Regina!
0:07:14 > 0:07:19# Vivat Regina Elizabetha!
0:07:19 > 0:07:23# Vivat, vivat, vivat! #
0:07:30 > 0:07:34They're set to music with a very unstable chord,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37which makes you feel very kind of shivery at that moment.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42# Vivat, vivat, vivat!
0:07:42 > 0:07:45# Vivat! #
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Normally, they apparently just used to shout these out,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53but actually incorporating it into a composed piece of music was a new idea.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55It's a real coup de theatre, musically.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The soft passage in the middle, "Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem,"
0:08:01 > 0:08:02is so exquisitely intimate,
0:08:02 > 0:08:08given the occasion for which it was written is so public
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and ceremonial and ancient.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17There's a wonderful delicacy to it, and it's really personal.
0:08:17 > 0:08:27# O pray for the peace of Jerusalem
0:08:27 > 0:08:37# They shall prosper that love thee
0:08:37 > 0:08:51# Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
0:08:51 > 0:09:01# They shall prosper that love thee... #
0:09:01 > 0:09:06And then, of course, for the trebles, it's the climb towards the B-flat at the end.
0:09:06 > 0:09:13# Plenteousness within thy palaces... #
0:09:36 > 0:09:41The sense of elation after you've sung that climax,
0:09:41 > 0:09:46as the orchestra takes over and does the final flourish, as it were.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And you just want to jump up and down during that.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52But, of course, you're not allowed to!
0:09:54 > 0:09:56It's fantastic, I think.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01And, of course, with a with a big choir it must be even more remarkable, I would have thought.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04- ORGAN PLAYS BASS NOTES - But... it's very interesting, you see?
0:10:06 > 0:10:08HE LAUGHS
0:10:08 > 0:10:11See, it's those ones that make the whole difference,
0:10:11 > 0:10:12I think, those pipes!
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Most extraordinary, I think, achievement,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20to be able to write something like that.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Which obviously becomes so much a part of the subconscious,
0:10:24 > 0:10:25in a funny way.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28It's used so often in churches all up and down the country.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31- It's not just for coronations? - No, no, absolutely not.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34But what I was so interested, I...
0:10:34 > 0:10:38When he wrote it for the coronation of my great-great-grandparents,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41it was an extraordinary piece of theatre, really.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Which, of course, all went wrong, didn't it, on the day, when...
0:10:45 > 0:10:47it all started too early.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50I think they got it better organised, didn't they,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52for my mama's coronation.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53Did you enjoy singing it?
0:10:53 > 0:10:56It's a great piece, yeah.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59- It's really nice. - A lot of contrast during the piece.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02It's nice filling the space that it was designed for.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04But do you feel, with that wonderful moment
0:11:04 > 0:11:07with the organ at the beginning, the opening bars,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11when it rises to that incredible moment when you all come in?
0:11:11 > 0:11:13It is, I think, incredibly stirring.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16- It's the climax that... - You can imagine the occasion.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20This version isn't the version that was played at Edward VII's coronation.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25- No.- The start of this one was written for George V's coronation.
0:11:25 > 0:11:32- So was it changed quite a lot? - It was changed, because it started quietly at Edward VII's and...
0:11:32 > 0:11:37Slightly too quietly for people to realise that it had started! PRINCE CHARLES LAUGHS
0:11:37 > 0:11:44And actually, Queen Alexandra's procession started and the piece started,
0:11:44 > 0:11:50but the King was nowhere to be seen, and so the piece finished
0:11:50 > 0:11:56and he still hadn't arrived, so they started again from the vivats.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00So the Queen's scholars sang them twice.
0:12:00 > 0:12:01And then the piece finished.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04There must have been the most wonderful panic going on!
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Yeah, that coronation didn't go well, because the...
0:12:07 > 0:12:10the King's crown got put on back-to-front as well.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11It didn't?
0:12:11 > 0:12:16- LAUGHTER - Course, nobody would have noticed, probably would they, really?
0:12:16 > 0:12:19- So he then rewrote, did he, the opening?- Yes, and...
0:12:19 > 0:12:22- To make it much stronger and...- Yes. - Ah, I see.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Wasn't it lucky he was still there for the next coronation?
0:12:25 > 0:12:27LAUGHTER
0:12:28 > 0:12:33"To the memory of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Baronet,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38"fifth son of Thomas Gambier Parry and Isabella Fynes-Clinton,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40"his wife."
0:12:52 > 0:12:56"Director of the Royal College of Music, 1895-1918.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59"Member of the Royal Yacht Squadron." Aha.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05"With his whole heart he sung songs and loved him that made him."
0:13:09 > 0:13:12'For me, it was a real journey of discovery
0:13:12 > 0:13:15'because I hadn't had a chance to discover
0:13:15 > 0:13:18'the range of his talent and contribution.'
0:13:18 > 0:13:22So this film has enabled me to find out an enormous amount.
0:13:23 > 0:13:30It's been fascinating, going to visit Shulbrede Priory, this remarkable, ancient place
0:13:30 > 0:13:36hidden away in a wood in Sussex, and being shown around by Sir Hubert's great-granddaughter, Laura Ponsonby.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42The house contains so many memoirs and personal possessions of Parry
0:13:42 > 0:13:47and his wife Maude that you really feel you get to know them.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53- BELL RINGS - It's going to work!
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Nobody there, after all that!
0:13:58 > 0:13:59FOOTSTEPS
0:13:59 > 0:14:03It's like The Goons, you hear them coming from miles away!
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Ah!
0:14:07 > 0:14:10- Hello, I'm Laura. Welcome to Shulbrede.- Thank you very much.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12I'm afraid you've come on an awful day.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14- No, no, I love it. - Do you know what we call it?
0:14:14 > 0:14:20- What?- Hubert Parry weather! Do you know, every time we've had something connected, we think, "Hubert's here."
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Really? With the roaring...
0:14:22 > 0:14:24- I love this weather.- He loved it. - It's my favourite...
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Yes, he used to say, as you perhaps know, he used to say,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31"We went out and we had no fun, cos it was calm!"
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Or he said, "I shan't go unless there's a gale!"
0:14:34 > 0:14:37- Really?- Yes, he adored it.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Did Hubert Parry come here a lot?
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Yes, he did, because my grandmother, Dolly, you know, he had the two...
0:14:43 > 0:14:44he had two daughters, Dolly and Gwen.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48And Dolly he was devoted to, and she was devoted to him.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50He used to come over in his car, as fast as possible.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54- And can you remember her?- I remember Dolly, yes, I do. She died in 1963.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56She was very black-and-white.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01He wrote two pieces for her, because he said she had two distinct moods,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03and we certainly knew that when we were children!
0:15:03 > 0:15:06She could be very, very lovely
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and she could be very black as thunder.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12So anyway she has these two - one rather a dainty piece,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15and the other one a very serious piece.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46It deals with the pensive and warm side of Dolly,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48and it's like the piano version
0:15:48 > 0:15:51of Elgar's famous Nimrod,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54from the Enigma Variations,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59but it's less overpowering.
0:16:04 > 0:16:10It's so gentle, but the gentleness doesn't mean it's watered-down.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23It's so full of beautiful, beautiful emotions.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31It's a house with great charm.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34People feel the sort of calmness of it.
0:16:34 > 0:16:42Parry was absolutely enchanted with it, and wrote this series of piano pieces, called the Shulbrede Tunes,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46which were picturing either the house or the people who were here.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55The warmth we feel from him is just so endearing to me.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Be hard to know it was Parry!
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Touching, isn't it, really?
0:17:27 > 0:17:32It's so natural, while at the same time, it's formally perfect as well.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56He was a master of finding melodies, extraordinary.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10I think she was, in fact, rather like her father.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13She had a sort of inner life and she was quite a thinker.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44One of the critics, only a few years after Parry's death,
0:18:44 > 0:18:48declared that Parry was the composer who never was.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54So I was shocked when I saw the quality of the Shulbrede Tunes
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and the Hands Across the Centuries Suite,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01the last two suites he wrote at the end of his life.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09I was really happy to find these pinnacles of English piano writing.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27People don't know the music, they have a prejudiced view of what he's like,
0:19:27 > 0:19:34and in a way, the prejudice of the man has perhaps influenced their knowledge of the music,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37so they're just not going to listen to it.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- He goes bald very, very early. - Yes, he does.
0:19:45 > 0:19:51He wasn't a straight-laced person, and I always like to somehow tie up the music with the man.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54The man was a fantastic person, I'd loved to have known him.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57A really warm, tolerant man
0:19:57 > 0:20:00of wide tastes.
0:20:00 > 0:20:06You know, the story of him and the person who was poaching when he was up before the bench
0:20:06 > 0:20:11on which sat Parry, fined him for breaking the law and his poaching,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14then nipped around the back and paid him out of his own pocket.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18So he fined him at the same time and paid the fine himself.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22I think that's a wonderful story and, I mean, that really sums up...
0:20:22 > 0:20:27Parry's great-heartedness, and his liberal politics as well.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32You know, I fight all my life to get the right idea of Parry, because people get the wrong Parry.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36You know, they imagine that he's a sort of Tory and...
0:20:36 > 0:20:37Quite different to what he was.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42It's so typical of what happens in life, isn't it? They always get the wrong impression.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44I know, and people go on talking about it.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48It's trying to change that impression that's the difficulty.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Here are lots of little steps and things.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05- That goes up to the...?- Yeah, that was the original monastic staircase.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Be careful of your suit, though, because it is quite dirty on the walls.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12We keep lots of archives and things in here.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15He had very neat writing.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Quite good for reading, unlike his daughter Dolly.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22What is that one? Gin?
0:21:22 > 0:21:23- Yes. Is that gin?- Yes.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- Right.- That's what it says.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Do you know, I've never done that! I should have done it!
0:21:30 > 0:21:35One friend of mine, who was a good musician, said, "I can't bear Parry."
0:21:35 > 0:21:37I said, "Oh, right. What?"
0:21:37 > 0:21:42- "Jerusalem, you know?" - You see, that's the problem, they only think that's all there is.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46- And I said, Well, what else? I said "What else do you know?" - What else, exactly.- Silence.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Silence, yep. Hadn't heard the symphonies or anything?
0:21:49 > 0:21:54- Hadn't heard anything, no. Nothing. - A lot of people have never heard the symphonies.- No.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I tell people about it and they say, "Really?"
0:21:56 > 0:21:59What really intrigues me is...
0:21:59 > 0:22:01in loving Sir Hubert Parry's music,
0:22:01 > 0:22:07but not having known very much... Obviously look into the background
0:22:07 > 0:22:09or his family or anything,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and then it's riveting, once you start reading more about it.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14You find, for instance,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18that Parry was brought up in the village of Highnam,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22just outside Gloucester, where his father was the squire
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and very much the dominant figure in the family.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29His father, Thomas Gambier Parry, was a great man of great energy, I think.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31But he had very strict rules,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34particularly when it came to religion.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39All the staff would come for prayers in the morning, he would read from the Bible.
0:22:39 > 0:22:44And he was a man who controlled people, he was in charge.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49He was that sort of Victorian who had a very strict view of the way
0:22:49 > 0:22:55you should live your life, I suspect, within the confines of the religious restrictions.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58It led him to create what I gather John Betjeman described as
0:22:58 > 0:23:02"the most complete Victorian church in Britain".
0:23:02 > 0:23:04So young Hubert grew up in its shadow.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07I hear Sir Hubert Parry's father, Thomas Gambier Parry...
0:23:07 > 0:23:10- Who built this church... - ..was also very devout.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13He was a very devout man and a great philanthropist.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16He had married the lovely Isabella,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20who was his first wife, and together they talked about
0:23:20 > 0:23:24building a church here in this place, because there wasn't one.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Thomas did it at incredible speed.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33Remarkably, that whole building was ready in every respect in 21 months.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35It's a complete work of art,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38masterminded by one man and his vision.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43He wanted to enrich his own church with his own frescoes
0:23:43 > 0:23:48and so he began to paint the chancel arch scene, the traditional Judgment scene.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52What a contribution it gives to the whole effect of that building.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55So if you sit on the left of the church, you're going to heaven,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58sit on the right, you're going off to hell.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Oh, Lord!
0:23:59 > 0:24:02- THEY LAUGH But it's quite a mild doom picture... - It is very mild.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06- Unlike some of them.- Compared to some of them, the old ones are fantastic.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Yes, some of them are pretty grim.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12I hadn't realised that, near the end of his life,
0:24:12 > 0:24:18Hubert Parry set to music a poem by John Donne about the Last Judgment.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23Perhaps his father's grand mural in Highnam Church was in his mind.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27"At the round Earth's imagin'd corners blow
0:24:27 > 0:24:30"Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise
0:24:30 > 0:24:33"From death, you numberlesse infinities
0:24:33 > 0:24:37"Of soules, and to your scattered bodies goe
0:24:37 > 0:24:40"All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow
0:24:40 > 0:24:46"All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50"Despaire, law, chance, hath slaine, and you whose eyes
0:24:50 > 0:24:54"Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe."
0:24:54 > 0:25:08# At the round earth's imagin'd corners
0:25:08 > 0:25:12# Blow your trumpets... #
0:25:12 > 0:25:16They're very different sorts of trumpets to the trumpets of I Was Glad.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23On a completely different celestial level.
0:25:23 > 0:25:32# Blow your trumpets, Angells... #
0:25:32 > 0:25:33It's music on a grand scale.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38# And arise... #
0:25:38 > 0:25:42There's an incredible sense of ecstasy about it
0:25:42 > 0:25:46when the voices rise up to the top A in the treble part.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50# ..arise
0:25:50 > 0:25:53# From death
0:25:53 > 0:26:00# You numberlesse infinities... #
0:26:00 > 0:26:08The "numberlesse infinities of soules", there's serious fear portrayed,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12with the lower voices treading death-march-like underneath.
0:26:15 > 0:26:24# You numberlesse infinities of soules
0:26:24 > 0:26:32# And to your scattered bodies goe
0:26:32 > 0:26:37# And to your scattered bodies goe
0:26:37 > 0:26:46# And to your scattered bodies goe... #
0:26:46 > 0:26:48I don't know it very well, that one,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52but it is rather remarkable. It has this most marvellous...
0:26:52 > 0:26:55The beginning has this extraordinary effect,
0:26:55 > 0:26:56With all the voices together,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58the way it...
0:26:58 > 0:27:00reverberates is staggering at the beginning.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05# All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies
0:27:05 > 0:27:13# Despair, law, chance, hath slain... #
0:27:13 > 0:27:17There's one extraordinary passage in this motet,
0:27:17 > 0:27:22where Parry seems to pull all the pillars away
0:27:22 > 0:27:27from the strong, tonal support to the piece.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30And that is in this ethereal section, where he sets,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32"And you whose eyes
0:27:32 > 0:27:33"Shall behold God."
0:27:33 > 0:27:38# And you, whose eyes
0:27:38 > 0:27:44# Shall behold God... #
0:27:44 > 0:27:52It's not only in the extraordinary angularity of the musical lines, it is almost - what might one say -
0:27:52 > 0:27:53- atonal.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02We don't know where we are.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05It's a vision of the Almighty.
0:28:08 > 0:28:22# And you, whose eyes Shall behold God
0:28:22 > 0:28:27# And never taste
0:28:27 > 0:28:38# And never taste death's woe
0:28:38 > 0:28:46# And never taste death's woe... #
0:28:46 > 0:28:51Within 12 days of giving birth to Hubert,
0:28:51 > 0:28:57his mother, Isabella, died of tuberculosis.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01This was dreadful for Thomas Gambier Parry,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04of course, but ultimately, of course,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06it was pretty dreadful for Hubert, too,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09who grew up very lonely as a boy.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15Three of Hubert's four elder brothers had died in infancy,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19which is why his father dedicated the church to the Holy Innocents.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24Little Hubert would come to church and behave nicely.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28He was... obviously had a great deal of religion in his life as a little boy.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33He played the organ from a very early age, when he was sort of seven or eight,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35before his feet could reach the pedals.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37I say, look at these!
0:29:37 > 0:29:39'What riveted me, of course,'
0:29:39 > 0:29:43was to discover that his father was such a good watercolourist, marvellous.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46When I saw his paintings, I couldn't get over them.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Gosh. Incredibly competent, isn't it?
0:29:49 > 0:29:54Eat your heart out, as far as I'm concerned, when you look at those.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59'So this rigid man of religion was at the same time a creative free spirit
0:29:59 > 0:30:02'who collected art on his travels
0:30:02 > 0:30:05'and painted landscapes as well as murals.'
0:30:05 > 0:30:06Venice...
0:30:06 > 0:30:10'Thomas had experienced the Italian light, the strong sunlight.'
0:30:10 > 0:30:15And it was into his watercolours he could portray this.
0:30:15 > 0:30:16Strong, strong colours.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Fantastic. I love the sky here with...
0:30:20 > 0:30:22the bits of green.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Oh, well.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26Why do I bother?
0:30:26 > 0:30:28'I would have thought that such an artistic man
0:30:28 > 0:30:32'would have welcomed his son's musical ambitions.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35'But Thomas Gambier Parry was an amateur,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38'and that was all he expected of his son.'
0:30:38 > 0:30:41'He always encouraged Hubert's music.'
0:30:41 > 0:30:46But it was, of course, never intended to be a career, that was quite clear,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48and I fear Hubert must have realised
0:30:48 > 0:30:52what his father was going to say the whole way through,
0:30:52 > 0:30:57but the urge in Hubert was too great and it was going to burst out at some stage.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01They may not have been aristocracy,
0:31:01 > 0:31:06but Thomas Gambier Parry had bought a large estate,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10he was now a very established man of the county of Gloucestershire.
0:31:10 > 0:31:15'His son was not to be a professional musician.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18'Not the thing to be done from the landed gentry.
0:31:22 > 0:31:23'Consequently,'
0:31:23 > 0:31:27when Hubert let it be known that he wanted to make a career in music...
0:31:29 > 0:31:31..Thomas Gambier Parry flatly refused.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38- He was always away, apparently, wasn't he?- Oh, yes.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40Thomas Parry, he was always going to Italy?
0:31:40 > 0:31:45- Yeah, he loved Italy.- Yes. So I suppose Hubert Parry hardly ever saw him?
0:31:50 > 0:31:51This is a height chart,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53I believe, from the mid 1800s,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57and there's reference to Hubert as he was growing,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01- there's different heights.- We had one in my grandmother's house,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. We were all measured as children.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07Same sort of height as me, I think, probably.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09And I'm shrinking fast!
0:32:11 > 0:32:14'He had an elder brother who was very brilliant called Clinton,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17'who was, I suppose, eight years older than him.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20'But Clinton took drugs, he took opium,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23'he womanized and he took drink, and he was sent down,'
0:32:23 > 0:32:26or went down, from Oxford about three times.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29And he was desperate.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Clinton was sent off to South Africa
0:32:32 > 0:32:35to farm, and...
0:32:35 > 0:32:39that was an utter failure, financially and in health terms,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43because Clinton just was drinking more and more.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47He lost his faith, and his father, with all this bad behaviour,
0:32:47 > 0:32:51but particularly because of the loss of faith, he disinherited him.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55He was the elder and he would have had the estate of Highnam and all the lands and everything.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Anyway, he was totally disinherited.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01And then Parry,
0:33:01 > 0:33:06in 1873, I think, it is that...
0:33:06 > 0:33:11he loses his faith, and he feels honour-bound to write to his father,
0:33:11 > 0:33:13and so he writes him a long letter.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18- "Dearest, Possie..." Because they called him that, didn't they? - They called him Possie.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23"After considerable hesitation, I've come to the conclusion
0:33:23 > 0:33:26"that it is my duty to write you a letter
0:33:26 > 0:33:29"which is very likely to give you pain
0:33:29 > 0:33:31"and likely also to make you angry."
0:33:31 > 0:33:34I would love to see into Hubert's mind
0:33:34 > 0:33:38as he prepared to write that letter.
0:33:38 > 0:33:39It says a lot for his integrity,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43because he knew exactly what his father wanted of him.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Parry felt he must do this because he was going to inherit Highnam
0:33:46 > 0:33:49and he didn't want to inherit it under false pretences.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53And then we do actually have Thomas Gambier Parry's reply.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58"I had set my heart and based my hopes on you.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02"And now even you appear to have failed me.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04"It is too deep a grief.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10"You, my loved Hubert, cast off the Lord who bought you."
0:34:12 > 0:34:16He'd had such a shock from Clinton's behaviour,
0:34:16 > 0:34:20and now his precious Hubert was coming along the same lines.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And he really wondered what he was going to do with someone
0:34:24 > 0:34:29who admitted that he didn't believe in all that the Church of England stood for.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31He was an infidel, in his words.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36"I have sometime past noticed in you, with painful anxiety,
0:34:36 > 0:34:38"growing pride of intellect,
0:34:38 > 0:34:42"great impatience of any opinion contrary to your own."
0:34:42 > 0:34:45- BOTH CHUCKLE - Sounds familiar, doesn't it? - Yes, it does, rather!
0:34:47 > 0:34:50- Oh, dear.- Mmm, so there we are. - He must have had great...
0:34:50 > 0:34:55- I suppose he had great resilience and strength of character, didn't he?- Yes, he did.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57- He really was...- Hubert.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00If you'd had the chance to meet Hubert Parry,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03- do you think you'd have got on? - Oh, yes.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06I'd loved to have met him. And I'd love to have met
0:35:06 > 0:35:10Sir Edward Elgar as well, I must say.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12And I'm sure...
0:35:12 > 0:35:15I'm sure Sir Hubert Parry was an enjoyable character.
0:35:22 > 0:35:23The beef steak.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27A backslapping, jovial character.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37Clutching your hand in a very strong paw,
0:35:37 > 0:35:42or thumping an old colleague on the back - almost knocked the teeth out!
0:35:47 > 0:35:52I think it was Vaughan Williams who said they were deceived by his rubicund bonhomie.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59They imagined that he had the mind,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01as well as the appearance,
0:36:01 > 0:36:02of a country squire.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06The fact is
0:36:06 > 0:36:10that Parry had a very nervous temperament,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13as we all knew who had anything to do with him.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20Here's a man who is lonely, very sensitive,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23a heavily-conflicted man.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29His heart, he says, comes on really bad. I suppose sort of palpitations or something.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37He was often the victim of stress,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40thanks to the long hours he put in at the Royal College of Music,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43where he was a profound influence
0:36:43 > 0:36:46on the coming generation of British composers.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50The idea was that music was going to make you into a better person.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52He said to Vaughan Williams,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55"Write choral music that befits an Englishman and a democrat."
0:36:57 > 0:37:00- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: - Parry's great watchword
0:37:00 > 0:37:02was character.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05He was always on the lookout
0:37:05 > 0:37:09for what was characteristic.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12And even if he disliked a piece of music,
0:37:12 > 0:37:18he would praise it if he found anything in it that had character.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28Actually writing a tune, it seems to me, can so often be denigrated by people nowadays,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32but it is actually a very difficult thing to do, I would have thought,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35because nowadays I don't think you get many tunes.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39There aren't many compositions that people go around humming afterwards.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41They're here and gone.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45One of the things that makes Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
0:37:45 > 0:37:49such a good tune is that you can recognise it within three notes...
0:37:50 > 0:37:55And you know what that is, which is the trick of a very great melodist, I think.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58They were singing it on the beach at Dunkirk, I seem to remember,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00in that film which I saw some time ago,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02which was so moving.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07The fact that the soldiers were singing
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
0:38:10 > 0:38:13in the midst of all this carnage and horror was...
0:38:15 > 0:38:18..very telling about the way in which it formed
0:38:18 > 0:38:22such an important part of people's consciousness...
0:38:22 > 0:38:26# The beauty of thy peace... #
0:38:26 > 0:38:31..as a hymn, a tune that reminded them so much of home and England,
0:38:31 > 0:38:36and at a time when everything was so ghastly you thought you were never going to survive.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40# Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire
0:38:40 > 0:38:43# Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire... #
0:38:43 > 0:38:47It shows great genius to be able to write something like that
0:38:47 > 0:38:53which sticks in the mind, because it has all the right elements to make it do that.
0:38:54 > 0:38:59I think Parry was pretty astute in how he constructed that tune.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05Whether it was conscious or unconscious, I don't know,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09but Parry was tapping into some of the best-known tunes in England at that time,
0:39:09 > 0:39:14what used to be known as national songs, and he's half quoting about four of them.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18If you can do that and get away with it with a tune which is highly original,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20you certainly know what you're doing.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25What we've got here, which is rather interesting,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29is the actual manuscript of Jerusalem.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31- Oh, I see, how splendid. - It's the real thing.
0:39:31 > 0:39:37Royal College have got one, but theirs is an orchestral one. This is the very first one which he wrote.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41- See, it doesn't actually have a title.- Right.
0:39:41 > 0:39:47And then it puts here, "Kindly let us have matter for title."
0:39:47 > 0:39:50- This is not Hubert's writing.- Oh. - So, "What is the title?"
0:39:50 > 0:39:54- He never wanted it to be called Jerusalem, did he? - No, he didn't, no.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59We've got a note from my grandmother saying he hated it, he wanted it to be called And Did Those Feet, yes.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02There's almost a folk element about the piece.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06I mean, Elgar used to say he used to write modern folk tunes,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10and in some ways I think Jerusalem has that kind of quality.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13This is a famously difficult piece to play.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17All those ladies at Women's Institutes who play it every meeting
0:40:17 > 0:40:22and those of us who attempt to play it in churches and at weddings and funerals and so on,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25we always blench at this quite difficult introduction.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27I've never heard anybody try to miss it out.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Nobody ever begins Jerusalem with...
0:40:30 > 0:40:31PLAYS BEGINNING OF VOCAL SECTION
0:40:33 > 0:40:37We know somehow that this introduction
0:40:37 > 0:40:39is a most important part of the tune,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43which explains it and justifies it.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45It's a very characteristic sound,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47and it becomes even more characteristic
0:40:47 > 0:40:50when Parry contradicts that chord that says so clearly D major...
0:40:52 > 0:40:54..with that in the bass. Not...
0:40:55 > 0:40:56..but....
0:40:59 > 0:41:04And what Parry is doing here is setting up a melody that's going to be what we call pentatonic,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07that's to say, it uses that five-note scale...
0:41:09 > 0:41:12..that so much folk music from England and from Ireland,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16Celtic folk music and so on, use this pentatonic scale.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19D, E, F sharp, A, B.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23And the note that's conspicuously absent is G.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27# And did those feet
0:41:27 > 0:41:30# In ancient time... #
0:41:30 > 0:41:32That little twiddle, almost,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34which just touches on G.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37So exactly the same little snippet - # Ancient time
0:41:37 > 0:41:39# Walk upon Eng... #
0:41:39 > 0:41:42"Ancient time" is finishing the line, and "walk upon Eng..."
0:41:42 > 0:41:44is beginning the line. It's the same music.
0:41:44 > 0:41:50# Walk upon England's mountains green... #
0:41:50 > 0:41:52- Then we have this... - PLAYS NOTES
0:41:52 > 0:41:54- ..and he jacks it up. - PLAY NOTES
0:41:54 > 0:41:57Same idea, but one note higher.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03# On England's pleasant pastures seen... #
0:42:03 > 0:42:06Parry's going to make it up now to the G, and he has...
0:42:08 > 0:42:09There's the G.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12And then he could have written...
0:42:15 > 0:42:17But he very slightly changes it.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20He doesn't change it enough to make it difficult to sing.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And, having put G so much to the forefront,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34the note that was despised and rejected at the beginning, as it were,
0:42:34 > 0:42:35we now get the whole opening on G.
0:42:36 > 0:42:42# Jerusalem builded here
0:42:42 > 0:42:49# Among those dark Satanic mills? #
0:42:49 > 0:42:52- He doesn't want to begin... - PLAYS CHORD
0:42:52 > 0:42:55..while the singers are still singing...
0:42:55 > 0:42:58- # Dark Satanic... # - PLAYS CHORD
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Because their last word would be lost.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02And so he lets the singer sing...
0:43:02 > 0:43:06# Dark Satanic mills. #
0:43:06 > 0:43:09- And then he comes in with this a beat late. - PLAYS CHORD
0:43:09 > 0:43:12So he really needs to lose a beat, so he does.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14PLAYS REFRAIN
0:43:22 > 0:43:27Now, the great bonus of Parry having omitted that beat
0:43:27 > 0:43:33is that it makes us ready to come in on the beat with, "Bring me my bow."
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Because "and did those feet" comes in...
0:43:36 > 0:43:38# And did those feet. #
0:43:38 > 0:43:39But...
0:43:42 > 0:43:43# Bring me... #
0:43:43 > 0:43:45I've never heard anybody get that wrong.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49# Bring me my bow
0:43:49 > 0:43:53# Of burning gold... #
0:43:53 > 0:43:56And there's a couple of marvellous changes in the second verse.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59The "mountains green" in the first verse...
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Very plain dignified harmony become "arrows of desire".
0:44:06 > 0:44:09And he just spices it up, just enough.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17# Bring me my spear
0:44:17 > 0:44:20# O, clouds unfold
0:44:20 > 0:44:26# Bring me my chariot of fire... #
0:44:26 > 0:44:30The composer Henry Walford Davies left a lovely description.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33He says here, "Sir Hubert Parry gave me the manuscript
0:44:33 > 0:44:37"of this setting of Blake's Jerusalem one memorable morning in 1916.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40"We looked at it long together in his room at the Royal College of Music,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43"and I recall vividly his unwonted happiness over it.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48"One momentary act of his should perhaps be told here. He ceased to speak,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51"and put his finger on the note D in the second stanza
0:44:51 > 0:44:54"where the words "o, clouds unfold" break his rhythm.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58"I do not think any word passed about it, yet he made it perfectly clear
0:44:58 > 0:45:02"that this was the one note and one moment of the song which he treasured."
0:45:02 > 0:45:06It's fascinating to work out why, out of a song with so many moments to treasure,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10this might have been the one that Parry pointed out to Walford Davies,
0:45:10 > 0:45:16and it's because this is where Parry solves the problem that's set him by the poet, William Blake.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21And all Blake's lines, with the exception of this one, are single statements.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22"And did those feet in ancient time
0:45:22 > 0:45:25"Walk upon England's mountains green."
0:45:25 > 0:45:28There's two lines together, but the lines are not interrupted.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31But this one... We've had, "Bring me my bow of burning gold
0:45:31 > 0:45:33"Bring me my arrows of desire."
0:45:33 > 0:45:35and then we have two things in one line.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38"Bring me my spear O, clouds unfold."
0:45:38 > 0:45:41And Parry was set the problem of showing
0:45:41 > 0:45:45that this one line in the whole poem had two bits.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47And he did it by
0:45:47 > 0:45:50putting that crotchet, so that instead of being...
0:45:50 > 0:45:52# Bring me my spear
0:45:52 > 0:45:54# O, clouds unfold. #
0:45:54 > 0:45:55..it becomes
0:45:55 > 0:45:57# Bring me my spear
0:45:57 > 0:45:58# O, clouds unfold. #
0:45:58 > 0:46:01And that was the bit that Parry was proudest of,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05and it was the bit where he had locked horns with Blake.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08# Nor shall my sword
0:46:08 > 0:46:11# Sleep in my hand... #
0:46:11 > 0:46:15# Till we have built
0:46:15 > 0:46:17# Jerusalem... #
0:46:17 > 0:46:20And so he gives terrific practical expression
0:46:20 > 0:46:23to the idea that we're going to build Jerusalem.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28And this, of course, is very close to Parry's politics and his whole ideals and philosophy and so on.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33It's very interesting that the long note and the high note is "built".
0:46:33 > 0:46:34"We have built."
0:46:34 > 0:46:38# Built Jerusalem... #
0:46:38 > 0:46:42And at the end, after the voices are finished...
0:46:42 > 0:46:44PLAYS REFRAIN ON PIANO
0:46:44 > 0:46:46..the piano comes back.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51And it could have just gone...
0:46:53 > 0:46:54But, no, we have...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01Up to the G.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05That's a very interesting thing that Parry should have done that,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09- because this is an aspirational melody, it's a melody... - PLAYS RISING MELODY
0:47:09 > 0:47:10..which keeps doing that.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15And yet - and here I think is the key to its Englishness -
0:47:15 > 0:47:18it begins with its highest note.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20That A is its very highest note.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Perhaps that's Jerusalem.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Perhaps that chord is Jerusalem.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28- And perhaps this is... - PLAYS LOW NOTES
0:47:28 > 0:47:31..Parry's realisation that there's a long way to go.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34And the end, the rising fourth echoing up to the G...
0:47:37 > 0:47:43..is perhaps Parry's realisation that we're not quite at Jerusalem yet.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47- Is that Sir Hubert?- Yes, there's Hubert.- Rather a good one, isn't it?
0:47:47 > 0:47:49Yes, it's good, isn't it?
0:47:49 > 0:47:50And that's a drawing.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53We don't really quite know the circumstance of it.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55And then here he is, look.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57This one.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01- That's him at Eton.- Oh, yes.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04And there he's head.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06That's Hubert. Yeah.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08CHARLES CHUCKLES
0:48:08 > 0:48:13Extraordinary, aren't they? He plays every sort of sport, absolutely loved football.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18Football and music. The thing is that he played it so violently.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Sometimes he was taken off on a stretcher.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23It meant that when he was laid up, he could then write his music.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31Parry was genetically predisposed, I think, to danger
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and hyperactivity, you might say.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37- Oh, and here's his yacht, is it? - That's right. That's the Wanderer.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41- Mad keen, was he, on sailing? - Absolutely mad.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46Every August he took off and went as far as he could and hoped it would be as rough as possible.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54He was an early car driver.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58He starts driving in 1904, and he writes in his diary,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01"Had a go at driving and found it decidedly difficult."
0:49:01 > 0:49:04But then, once he's got behind that wheel,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08he's absolutely mad about it and he drives all over the place.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10It's pretty dangerous.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14Just behind the door here, we have his...
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Parry's driving coat. He really did like going fast.
0:49:17 > 0:49:22One particular chauffeur Parry drove, and at the end of the ride,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24the chauffeur got out and was sick.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27He loved being Mr Toad, really, I think.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30He loved active sports,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34and Maude, his wife, never really participated in any of these.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37In fact, the only way she often participated was in the accidents
0:49:37 > 0:49:40that Parry had when he was driving,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44where she was quite badly injured on at least one occasion.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50He had a terrible smash with Maude.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53She was then given Veronal to try and calm her down,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56and it was thought that she became a bit addicted.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01He writes, "I turned round,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05"saw Maude heaped insensible, with blood streaming."
0:50:05 > 0:50:06Oh, Lord.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08- BOTH CHUCKLE - Oh, dear!
0:50:17 > 0:50:22When it comes to how my attention was caught by Parry's music,
0:50:22 > 0:50:27I think it was being introduced to his symphonies, which I never knew about.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Most people have no idea.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34Don't think you did, either, till I suggested you listen!
0:50:34 > 0:50:36I mean, they were a revelation.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41I can't remember who it was... whether it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who recommended them.
0:50:41 > 0:50:42Somebody like that.
0:50:42 > 0:50:48So it was a real thrill to find the Proms last year putting on his fifth and final symphony,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51which was written in 1912,
0:50:51 > 0:50:56performed three or four times, and then forgotten.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Two recordings have been made relatively recently,
0:50:59 > 0:51:04but it hadn't been played live since before the First World War.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07The fifth symphony is a truly splendid piece
0:51:07 > 0:51:11with first-class material. You can't forget the wonderful opening
0:51:11 > 0:51:13'with its great sweeping theme.'
0:51:13 > 0:51:17I know that you will be the best performers of Mr Parry.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20So Symphonic Fantasia, yes?
0:51:20 > 0:51:26Movements have titles. The first movement named Stress. ALL LAUGH
0:51:26 > 0:51:27Yes, it's about conductors.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Yes, yes, yes. The second movement, Lento.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Named... What do you think?
0:51:33 > 0:51:35Love!
0:51:35 > 0:51:38HE MIMICS KISSING Yes, yes.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Big love, not sexual of course. No.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43No!
0:51:43 > 0:51:45ALL LAUGH
0:51:45 > 0:51:47The third movement, yes, Vivace.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50HE HUMS Play!
0:51:50 > 0:51:52- Play after love. - CONDUCTOR CHUCKLES
0:51:52 > 0:51:58In finale, Moderato. Named Now.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01'I think Parry saw this as an opportunity to write a work
0:52:01 > 0:52:06'that had major autobiographical significance for him.'
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Three, four. ORCHESTRA PLAYS
0:52:20 > 0:52:22It's lovely here.
0:52:22 > 0:52:23It's...
0:52:23 > 0:52:27I always think he must have been such a generous,
0:52:27 > 0:52:28such a big-hearted man.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32Remarkable man.
0:52:32 > 0:52:33CONDUCTOR: A slow tear.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42I always feel he must have been a gentleman in the true sense of the word.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54It's something I've been longing for since...
0:52:54 > 0:53:00I started my research on Parry back in the late 1970s.
0:53:00 > 0:53:01'I felt that'
0:53:01 > 0:53:05it's really very, very good music for me personally.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54This is the generous Parry, I think.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15- Glorious.- Marvellous.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22'Emotionally, it's so rich and full,'
0:54:22 > 0:54:25its tune is so beautiful.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30'This symphony has something very, very special.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31'It's a symphony fantasy.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33'Its fantasies are great.'
0:54:37 > 0:54:41'If you scratch a French composer, underneath you'll find Massenet.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43'If you scratch an English composer,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47'certainly the first 50 years of the 20th century, you'll find Parry underneath.'
0:55:07 > 0:55:13'I can tell you that he is a very good composer, really very good.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18'I never thought that he's very British, or especially British, you see.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21'For me, it was really very interesting music.'
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Good. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Yes, may I ask the trombones...
0:55:25 > 0:55:27It's a very professional thing.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31A symphony has a classical form, very good construction,
0:55:31 > 0:55:33and very, very short. Very...
0:55:33 > 0:55:37You know, some composers start and they cannot stop on time,
0:55:37 > 0:55:42but he's absolutely well-organised in his compositions.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44Great, great piece.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12'I'm with this orchestra 15 years,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16'so we know each other and they immediately understand from me
0:56:16 > 0:56:18'if I trust this music, I love it, or not.'
0:56:20 > 0:56:25Everybody came to me and said, "Oh, we never heard about this symphony."
0:56:25 > 0:56:26I was really happy.
0:56:26 > 0:56:32You share something with this orchestra, which I don't know if anybody's told you yet.
0:56:32 > 0:56:37- I think your cello teacher was Naomi Butterworth?- That's right.- Ivor, one of our double bass players,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40- he's disappeared...his teacher.... - Oh, it's the double bass.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44I went around saying, "Which of you in the cello section...?"
0:56:44 > 0:56:49- and they all rushed off.- His teacher was Naomi.- But it's the double bass. - Yes, it was one of the basses.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Oh, she was wonderful, Naomi.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55When I was at Cambridge I used to go and play in little quartets
0:56:55 > 0:56:58- and things occasionally, very, very badly.- Oh, no, no.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01It was wonderful. I loved making music with other people.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04I used to sit there practising, you know,
0:57:04 > 0:57:06banging a tuning fork,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10practising to Karajan's recording of Beethoven's 5th or something.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18Sir Hubert Parry, who was such a great figure in the Edwardian period,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20and I suppose has been overshadowed
0:57:20 > 0:57:24or perhaps considered overtly jingoistic or something.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26I don't think it is at all, but...
0:57:26 > 0:57:28in a funny way...
0:57:28 > 0:57:33I suppose he got sort of lumped in with feelings about Elgar and everything else.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36On the other hand, Elgar acknowledged quite a lot, didn't he,
0:57:36 > 0:57:38in terms of his debt to Sir Hubert Parry?
0:57:48 > 0:57:54Blest Pair Of Sirens was hugely influential on Elgar and undoubtedly on Vaughan Williams,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57who, after all, said that he thought Blest Pair of Sirens
0:57:57 > 0:58:00was one of the greatest choral works ever to come out of this island.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04I do remember a particularly incredible performance
0:58:04 > 0:58:05of Blest Pair Of Sirens,
0:58:05 > 0:58:10which we were so excited to be part of. And...
0:58:10 > 0:58:15I suppose at that age you're not aware of the complexity of the music,
0:58:15 > 0:58:20you're more aware of its energy and it just swept us up. It was wonderful to sing.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24He used to write, didn't he, for choirs of 2,000?
0:58:24 > 0:58:26Those were the days!
0:58:27 > 0:58:33# Blest pair of sirens
0:58:33 > 0:58:39# Pledges of Heaven's joy
0:58:39 > 0:58:45# Sphere-born harmonious sisters... #
0:58:45 > 0:58:49At a concert on my 60th birthday at Buckingham Palace they played it.
0:58:49 > 0:58:51It was wonderful.
0:58:53 > 0:58:55I think that was the first time I'd heard it.
0:58:55 > 0:58:57ALL SING IN HARMONY
0:59:14 > 0:59:18But to hear it in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace
0:59:18 > 0:59:19was absolutely fantastic.
0:59:19 > 0:59:24'The acoustics are so good in that room.'
0:59:24 > 0:59:26THEY SING IN HARMONY
0:59:35 > 0:59:40In one sense, it was Parry paying homage to Bach.
0:59:40 > 0:59:45There is undoubtedly an element of that in the extraordinary eight-part counterpoint.
0:59:54 > 1:00:02# Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne
1:00:02 > 1:00:04# To him that...
1:00:04 > 1:00:10No wonder it was received uproariously, a marvellous description I read.
1:00:10 > 1:00:13# With saintly shout
1:00:13 > 1:00:18# And solemn jubilee
1:00:20 > 1:00:23Elgar said, "One of the noblest works of man."
1:00:23 > 1:00:25He really loved that work.
1:00:25 > 1:00:29It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
1:00:30 > 1:00:33A work of pure Englishness.
1:00:48 > 1:00:51What was so miraculous about this piece,
1:00:51 > 1:00:56and which I think was probably the major watershed in Parry's career,
1:00:56 > 1:01:01is that Parry had this extraordinary affinity, I think,
1:01:01 > 1:01:04with Milton's texts.
1:01:04 > 1:01:07There's that wonderful fugal passage towards the end,
1:01:07 > 1:01:09um, "Oh, may we soon again renew that song,"
1:01:09 > 1:01:12which, actually, when it starts, you don't know it's a fugue.
1:01:12 > 1:01:14It's just a long, long tune.
1:01:14 > 1:01:18# Oh may we soon again
1:01:18 > 1:01:22# Renew that song
1:01:22 > 1:01:27# And keep in tune with heaven
1:01:27 > 1:01:33# And keep in tune with heaven... #
1:01:33 > 1:01:36"Oh, may we soon again renew that song
1:01:36 > 1:01:38"and keep in tune with heaven...
1:01:39 > 1:01:44"Till God ere long to his celestial concert us unite."
1:01:44 > 1:01:47I mean, it's wonderful stuff, isn't it?
1:01:54 > 1:01:57He's setting up this enormous musical structure,
1:01:57 > 1:01:59which he then plays out completely.
1:02:01 > 1:02:04And it's correct academically in that regard,
1:02:04 > 1:02:07but also there's that yearning.
1:02:14 > 1:02:16I just think it's romantic.
1:02:29 > 1:02:31It also has a kind of...
1:02:31 > 1:02:33How do you describe it?
1:02:37 > 1:02:41A contradiction in terms, but a kind of domestic grandeur.
1:02:41 > 1:02:42Do you know what I mean?
1:02:47 > 1:02:50I find it's music that makes me feel better.
1:02:53 > 1:02:57# And sing in
1:02:57 > 1:03:02# Endless morn
1:03:02 > 1:03:05Gloriously harmonious!
1:03:09 > 1:03:17# And sing in endless
1:03:17 > 1:03:25# Morn of light. #
1:03:28 > 1:03:29Fantastic.
1:03:31 > 1:03:36There's an extraordinary picture of him as an Eton schoolboy, which looks unbelievably modern.
1:03:36 > 1:03:39It looks like a 1980s shirt that he's wearing,
1:03:39 > 1:03:41collarless shirt.
1:03:41 > 1:03:43He's probably just come in from sport or something.
1:03:43 > 1:03:48He looks very soulful, very thoughtful, rather vulnerable.
1:03:48 > 1:03:50It's a wonderful photograph.
1:03:50 > 1:03:55A lot of people were very smitten with Hubert Parry.
1:03:55 > 1:03:57He was described sometimes like a Greek God.
1:04:06 > 1:04:09He clearly wasn't short of admirers.
1:04:09 > 1:04:10He used to visit his schoolfriend
1:04:10 > 1:04:12George, Earl of Pembroke
1:04:12 > 1:04:16and his younger sister Lady Maude Herbert
1:04:16 > 1:04:18at their ancestral home in Wiltshire.
1:04:18 > 1:04:22There he met the teenager Maude
1:04:22 > 1:04:25and absolutely fell for her.
1:04:30 > 1:04:33They boated along the river and walked along the estate.
1:04:35 > 1:04:39And then I think her family became rudely aware
1:04:39 > 1:04:42that it was becoming more serious.
1:04:47 > 1:04:51And they became secretly engaged, but eventually this was found out
1:04:51 > 1:04:55and Lady Herbert, Maude's mother, was absolutely appalled
1:04:55 > 1:04:59and she wrote Parry a 19-side letter.
1:04:59 > 1:05:01I've nicknamed it The Odious Letter.
1:05:01 > 1:05:06It's telling him why he can't marry Maude and he won't be able
1:05:06 > 1:05:09to bring her up in the style to which she's accustomed.
1:05:09 > 1:05:12- Was it 19 sides?- 19 sides, yes.
1:05:12 > 1:05:14- Can you read it?- Just.
1:05:15 > 1:05:17"My dear Hubert.
1:05:17 > 1:05:22"I'm very much grieved to have to write to you on the subject of Maude,
1:05:22 > 1:05:26"but you've left me no alternative but to write,
1:05:26 > 1:05:29"or speak, and I prefer the former."
1:05:29 > 1:05:33Yes, I can understand that one, perhaps!
1:05:33 > 1:05:37She explained for all sorts of reasons
1:05:37 > 1:05:43why the marriage that they planned could never be.
1:05:44 > 1:05:46"I confess I am lost in astonishment
1:05:46 > 1:05:49"when I think how you could have the courage
1:05:49 > 1:05:52"to entangle Maude into an engagement
1:05:52 > 1:05:56"when you have no home to offer her nor any prospect of one."
1:05:56 > 1:05:59Because, of course, Hubert Parry had no fortune
1:05:59 > 1:06:02because his father, Thomas Gambier Parry,
1:06:02 > 1:06:07had spent most of the fortune that had been inherited.
1:06:07 > 1:06:10He had no title.
1:06:10 > 1:06:12He was not a member of the aristocracy.
1:06:12 > 1:06:13"Had her father lived,
1:06:13 > 1:06:18you would never have ventured to take so cruel a course.
1:06:18 > 1:06:20"I say cruel deliberately,
1:06:20 > 1:06:23"for you have brought terrible suffering on Maude and on me."
1:06:23 > 1:06:26"And what is more," she said,
1:06:26 > 1:06:33"Maude absolutely hates music and it is absolutely central to your life."
1:06:33 > 1:06:36Well, Maude didn't absolutely hate music
1:06:36 > 1:06:39but it certainly did not dominate her life.
1:06:39 > 1:06:45"As an honourable man, I must charge you to release her from this tacit engagement.
1:06:45 > 1:06:47"It never can be."
1:06:47 > 1:06:50"Not one woman in ten marries her first love
1:06:50 > 1:06:54"and certainly not one man in a thousand."
1:06:57 > 1:07:02But not even 19 pages managed to persuade Hubert to abandon Maude.
1:07:02 > 1:07:06They continued to meet in secret and he simply waited
1:07:06 > 1:07:10for his would-be mother-in-law to change her mind.
1:07:10 > 1:07:13I think Parry always let his heart in many ways rule his head,
1:07:13 > 1:07:18or at least in this case, love prevailed.
1:07:18 > 1:07:21What he then did in order to placate both sides,
1:07:21 > 1:07:27both his father and the Herberts, was to go into business.
1:07:27 > 1:07:30He went into business at Lloyd's Register of Shipping.
1:07:30 > 1:07:32Which he actually absolutely hates,
1:07:32 > 1:07:35but it means actually that he can go to lots of concerts in London.
1:07:35 > 1:07:38And so then things change.
1:07:38 > 1:07:42He's got a job and so he marries Maude.
1:07:48 > 1:07:53Now, this is the music Parry wrote for The Birds by Aristophanes
1:07:53 > 1:07:56and it concludes with a bridal march,
1:07:56 > 1:08:01which was used at the wedding of the present Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.
1:08:01 > 1:08:04Again, all this red ink.
1:08:10 > 1:08:15Actually, I long to hear this one. I've never ever heard it.
1:08:26 > 1:08:29She was very charming, apparently.
1:08:29 > 1:08:31She was fond of playing practical jokes.
1:08:31 > 1:08:35She told all the staff and herself to put on sticking plasters,
1:08:35 > 1:08:38that they'd got some terrible disease.
1:08:38 > 1:08:41But she turned out to be somebody who was
1:08:41 > 1:08:44perhaps not really terribly interested in his music.
1:08:44 > 1:08:47And she was constantly ill.
1:08:47 > 1:08:52And he rather clung on, I think, to the memory of what she once was.
1:08:52 > 1:08:56And in a sense, Lady Herbert was right
1:08:56 > 1:08:59in that there were problems in the marriage.
1:08:59 > 1:09:03Maude had a great deal to put up with.
1:09:03 > 1:09:07She just realised he was impossible and she was impossible as well.
1:09:07 > 1:09:09She confided to someone that
1:09:09 > 1:09:12it was impossible to be married to a genius
1:09:12 > 1:09:15and in fact that geniuses shouldn't marry.
1:09:15 > 1:09:20Very creative people probably are quite difficult, I suspect,
1:09:20 > 1:09:24cos the other person living with them has to live with the muse.
1:09:24 > 1:09:28It's hard to say whether Maude's illnesses were genuine or not.
1:09:28 > 1:09:31She does seem always to have been ill.
1:09:31 > 1:09:33The strange thing though
1:09:33 > 1:09:38is she was able to muster a considerable amount
1:09:38 > 1:09:41of energy when the rights for women began to emerge.
1:09:41 > 1:09:46She went on walks, on protests and so on with her friends.
1:09:46 > 1:09:48She knew the Pankhursts.
1:09:48 > 1:09:54Otherwise, she spent an awful lot of her time at home reclining on divans.
1:09:54 > 1:10:00This resulted in Hubert being sort of tethered, as it were.
1:10:00 > 1:10:02After first performances of his work,
1:10:02 > 1:10:05when he wanted to mingle with friends and acquaintances
1:10:05 > 1:10:08who'd come to the first performance,
1:10:08 > 1:10:11he'd be dragged away because she had to get home in time for bed
1:10:11 > 1:10:12and all that sort of thing.
1:10:12 > 1:10:17He did begin to find this very tiresome and it lasted a lifetime.
1:10:17 > 1:10:20She was a trial, I think, to him.
1:10:20 > 1:10:24In his diaries he very often puts what the weather was like.
1:10:24 > 1:10:28You know, "Weather stormy. Maude fair to middling."
1:10:29 > 1:10:32The family was no doubt used to the tantrums and his son-in-law
1:10:32 > 1:10:36Arthur Ponsonby very much took Parry's side,
1:10:36 > 1:10:39as he wrote in his diary shortly after Parry's death.
1:10:40 > 1:10:42Oh, yes, here we are.
1:10:42 > 1:10:44"With all his outward buoyancy
1:10:44 > 1:10:47"and apparent cheerfulness,
1:10:47 > 1:10:49"he was terribly lonely and always had been."
1:10:56 > 1:11:00"His wife never cared for his music,
1:11:00 > 1:11:03"never shared his life, was no companion,
1:11:03 > 1:11:06"and with her funny arrested development
1:11:06 > 1:11:09"and self-centred smallness of vision,
1:11:09 > 1:11:12"was no help or comfort to him at all."
1:11:15 > 1:11:18"His devotion to her was pathetic."
1:11:19 > 1:11:21"She hampered him, irritated him....
1:11:24 > 1:11:27"..bullied him, was a drain on him."
1:11:32 > 1:11:37"This gave him a note of melancholy which came out in his music."
1:11:44 > 1:11:47- How complicated relationships can be.- Indeed, yes.
1:12:16 > 1:12:19The two great gods for Parry were Brahms
1:12:19 > 1:12:24and Wagner, whom he assimilated rather skillfully
1:12:24 > 1:12:27in terms of melody and rhythm.
1:12:27 > 1:12:31Through his eyes we see Wagner anew.
1:12:31 > 1:12:35There was a time when Wagner was seen as irredeemably avant-garde and horribly modernistic.
1:12:35 > 1:12:38Parry got the message and was influenced by Wagner.
1:12:48 > 1:12:54Parry was able to get free tickets for the second cycle of The Ring in 1876.
1:12:54 > 1:12:59We know from Parry's diaries, he said he was cold with ecstasy
1:12:59 > 1:13:05when he heard Gotterdammerung, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and so on.
1:13:05 > 1:13:07It changed his life.
1:13:07 > 1:13:10Sh. Sh. Fantastic, my friends.
1:13:10 > 1:13:11Really?
1:13:11 > 1:13:14Please.
1:13:14 > 1:13:18I was asked by Christopher Warren-Greene...
1:13:18 > 1:13:20Do you know him? I'm very fond of him.
1:13:20 > 1:13:24We first met when he was first violin of the Philharmonia.
1:13:24 > 1:13:32He was very keen I should conduct Wagner's Siegfried Idyll
1:13:32 > 1:13:37as a birthday present for my wife as a surprise.
1:13:37 > 1:13:41So some of the Philharmonia came down and we did it as a surprise.
1:13:41 > 1:13:44But gosh, it was difficult.
1:13:44 > 1:13:48- On the stairs? - Not quite. But it was...
1:13:50 > 1:13:52..extremely embarrassing doing it.
1:13:52 > 1:13:55The orchestra were very nice about it.
1:14:23 > 1:14:25Parry was very pro-Wagner.
1:14:25 > 1:14:29- Was he?- Yes.
1:14:35 > 1:14:37I'm afraid the older I get, the more I love it.
1:14:40 > 1:14:45Is this Parry in Austrian Tyrolean vein.
1:14:47 > 1:14:48Yes, exactly.
1:15:14 > 1:15:19- Wonderful change of key.- Yes.
1:15:23 > 1:15:26I always think is just the one moment
1:15:26 > 1:15:28of light relief in the symphony.
1:15:28 > 1:15:32Everything else has this tremendous intensity.
1:15:37 > 1:15:39Yes, it's extraordinary, isn't it?
1:15:42 > 1:15:44- That's lovely. - Almost waltz-like, isn't it?
1:15:46 > 1:15:48Of course, we've got some influences of
1:15:48 > 1:15:52Brahms, Schumann, maybe a little bit Tchaikovsky,
1:15:52 > 1:15:55you see, but it's full of his emotions.
1:16:55 > 1:16:57APPLAUSE
1:17:04 > 1:17:07The terrible problem is I was so longing to hear it all.
1:17:07 > 1:17:10- What's...- Shhh! - It's so nice to have the background.
1:17:12 > 1:17:16What for me was so wonderful was to hear it live because
1:17:16 > 1:17:20you only have a chance otherwise to listen to the recordings.
1:17:20 > 1:17:21So it's a complete revelation
1:17:21 > 1:17:24- to hear it with an entire orchestra in this way.- Absolutely.
1:17:24 > 1:17:27- My real worry is I may never hear it again.- Yes.
1:17:27 > 1:17:31So the magic of the moment was fantastic. I can't tell you.
1:17:31 > 1:17:33It's very rich orchestration,
1:17:33 > 1:17:38very nice music, and BBC Phil have some special affinity for this.
1:17:38 > 1:17:42It's taken a lot of effort to get it played
1:17:42 > 1:17:44because it's never been played at the Proms.
1:17:44 > 1:17:47- No, never.- That's the extraordinary thing. Quite extraordinary.
1:17:47 > 1:17:51- Yes, it was a very good idea. - Is it fiendishly difficult to play?
1:17:51 > 1:17:54- It must be.- It is quite difficult but it is lovely to play.
1:17:54 > 1:17:58It's lovely, decent, passionate music.
1:17:58 > 1:18:01When did you discover Parry's music?
1:18:01 > 1:18:04Oh, just some years ago.
1:18:06 > 1:18:10I heard his very famous song Jerusalem
1:18:10 > 1:18:13in one of the Proms and Mark Elder conducting,
1:18:13 > 1:18:16and I was very, very touched with this melody.
1:18:16 > 1:18:19But of course this symphony was something new.
1:18:19 > 1:18:21Does it seem to you English?
1:18:21 > 1:18:24- Is it English music? - Firstly, it's great music.
1:18:24 > 1:18:28Yes, but does it have an English flavour or not?
1:18:28 > 1:18:31I can tell you that I love Elgar very much.
1:18:31 > 1:18:35Sometimes Elgar influences but at same time,
1:18:35 > 1:18:39he is very natural in his emotions.
1:18:39 > 1:18:42- It couldn't be Russian music. - No, no!
1:18:42 > 1:18:44And it couldn't be French.
1:18:44 > 1:18:47What is it that defines the Englishness in it?
1:18:47 > 1:18:50That's what fascinates me. Because it IS English in a funny way.
1:18:50 > 1:18:52I don't know what it is that produces it.
1:18:52 > 1:18:54The answer is in a way rather similar
1:18:54 > 1:18:58to if you ask that about Elgar, which I'm always being asked about.
1:18:58 > 1:19:02People always say, "What is it about Elgar that makes him English?"
1:19:02 > 1:19:06It's the same with Parry. What is it about Parry that makes him English?
1:19:06 > 1:19:09And it's extremely difficult to say.
1:19:09 > 1:19:13I'm not sure that there is anything intrinsically English in the style
1:19:13 > 1:19:16because, as we've said, it comes very largely
1:19:16 > 1:19:19out of Schumann, Brahms and Wagner.
1:19:19 > 1:19:20It must be English,
1:19:20 > 1:19:25- do you not think?- We were finding other things outside the English box.
1:19:25 > 1:19:27- Like?- Oh, crikey.
1:19:27 > 1:19:29- A bit of Wagner.- Oh, a bit of Wagner.
1:19:29 > 1:19:34In a way it's wrong to say because it's a piece in its own right, a very good piece of music.
1:19:34 > 1:19:36- A bit of Strauss perhaps. - Yes, a bit of Strauss.
1:19:36 > 1:19:39But a good piece. Oh, crikey, yes.
1:19:39 > 1:19:42But he does sound English, only because we know he's English
1:19:42 > 1:19:44and we can hear that he sounds like...
1:19:44 > 1:19:47sometimes like Vaughan Williams and sometimes like Elgar,
1:19:47 > 1:19:52the people that he influenced, not the other way around.
1:19:52 > 1:19:55The question of reticence is crucial
1:19:55 > 1:19:58to English music. It's crucial to Englishness actually.
1:19:58 > 1:20:00We speak rather elliptically.
1:20:00 > 1:20:03"Not bad at all." Meaning very good indeed.
1:20:03 > 1:20:06"Not being funny." Which means for two pins I'd knock you down.
1:20:06 > 1:20:09And these codes that we have to speak to each other
1:20:09 > 1:20:13are also replicated in our music.
1:20:13 > 1:20:17I think our music understates but it understates in a way
1:20:17 > 1:20:20that those who can understand do understand.
1:20:20 > 1:20:22And because it's in that sort of personal code,
1:20:22 > 1:20:27those of us who like it react to it in a very, very personal way indeed.
1:20:27 > 1:20:29Do you feel the landscape in it? I don't know.
1:20:29 > 1:20:33Lots of people have written emotional music.
1:20:33 > 1:20:36But this has something that defines it, I feel.
1:20:36 > 1:20:40I think that it's that question of reticence,
1:20:40 > 1:20:41of stiff upper lip, if you like,
1:20:41 > 1:20:46that Parry is unconsciously including in his melodies
1:20:46 > 1:20:52because I don't think he was trying to be English.
1:20:52 > 1:20:53I think he just was English.
1:20:56 > 1:21:01Almost a century after his death, it's amazing how many fine pieces
1:21:01 > 1:21:06by Parry are still hidden away, waiting to be rediscovered.
1:21:08 > 1:21:12I went to see the manuscript of the Magnificat in the British Library
1:21:12 > 1:21:14and no-one had looked at this book
1:21:14 > 1:21:19for a staggeringly large number of years.
1:21:22 > 1:21:27The Magnificat itself has hardly ever been performed
1:21:27 > 1:21:34and yet it contains perhaps one of Parry's most extraordinary gems
1:21:34 > 1:21:38where he writes for no more than a couple of clarinets,
1:21:38 > 1:21:40a bassoon, two horns,
1:21:40 > 1:21:44lower strings, a four-part chorus
1:21:44 > 1:21:48and a wonderful, sonorous violin obligato.
1:21:48 > 1:21:52It's almost the violin concerto that Parry never wrote.
1:22:20 > 1:22:22This movement is about mercy
1:22:22 > 1:22:27and has a particularly beautiful connection to this song of Mary.
1:22:43 > 1:22:47It's absolutely gorgeous and it's wonderful to have blown the dust off it.
1:23:01 > 1:23:03I think during the 1890s,
1:23:03 > 1:23:07he was almost the unofficial composer laureate.
1:23:15 > 1:23:17He found English music at a moment when it needed
1:23:17 > 1:23:20to take on German values
1:23:20 > 1:23:25and no-one did it more honestly and enthusiastically than Parry.
1:23:25 > 1:23:29So I think his position is assured, it's unique.
1:23:32 > 1:23:38Come the turn of the century, I think he was eclipsed.
1:23:40 > 1:23:44He was in at the birth of an English style in music
1:23:44 > 1:23:47and everybody tends to forget exactly what it is he did,
1:23:47 > 1:23:51because he was unfortunate enough to be followed by Elgar.
1:23:51 > 1:23:55He's a much finer composer than 30 or 40 years ago,
1:23:55 > 1:23:59perhaps even 20 years ago, we thought he was.
1:23:59 > 1:24:03You can be swept away by a good Parry piece, you know.
1:24:03 > 1:24:05It's got that quality.
1:24:05 > 1:24:08It just needs someone to hold a torch for it and do it.
1:24:11 > 1:24:14Perhaps he felt towards the end of his life
1:24:14 > 1:24:18that he'd somehow been superseded by...
1:24:18 > 1:24:21I suppose the modernist movement, really,
1:24:21 > 1:24:25that was abandoning all the accepted musical traditions
1:24:25 > 1:24:30as a result of the Stravinskys and Schoenbergs and others.
1:24:30 > 1:24:32And I can understand that.
1:24:32 > 1:24:37I can understand how that must make you feel, well, what was the point of all this?
1:24:37 > 1:24:44And indeed, of course, the poor man was completely swept aside and neglected.
1:24:44 > 1:24:48Right at the end of his life, Parry sets the Songs Of Farewell,
1:24:48 > 1:24:51these six exquisite, you could say, miniatures,
1:24:51 > 1:24:56but actually, as the sequence goes on, they become more and more
1:24:56 > 1:25:02grand and intimate and ambitious in their musical language.
1:25:02 > 1:25:07He had a whole series of minor heart attacks, I think, towards the end.
1:25:07 > 1:25:12I suppose you do become only too aware of your mortality.
1:25:13 > 1:25:17But also, given the fact that they were written during the First World War,
1:25:17 > 1:25:24when the gloom and the overshadowing disaster of casualties,
1:25:24 > 1:25:27which was of course hitting the Royal College with
1:25:27 > 1:25:34many of the pupils, current and ex, must have seemed deeply oppressive.
1:25:34 > 1:25:39And there is an element of that, I think, in the Songs Of Farewell.
1:25:52 > 1:25:58The text for the last of the Songs Of Farewell is the only one that is taken from scripture.
1:25:58 > 1:26:00"O spare me a little,
1:26:00 > 1:26:02"that I may recover my strength
1:26:02 > 1:26:05"before I go hence and be no more seen."
1:26:05 > 1:26:11It's that of a man, I feel, who is already ill.
1:26:17 > 1:26:21And asking for strength to carry on with his work.
1:26:29 > 1:26:31He keeps repeating the text,
1:26:31 > 1:26:34so I think it must have meant a great deal to him.
1:26:42 > 1:26:48I think that really shows there is something of the believer in Parry.
1:26:52 > 1:26:56It won't be long before I end up at 70, if I still survive.
1:26:57 > 1:27:00And I suppose you do start to think to yourself,
1:27:00 > 1:27:04as Sir Hubert Parry wrote to Herbert Howells,
1:27:04 > 1:27:06that he'd passed the last milestone.
1:27:10 > 1:27:13He felt he hadn't actually achieved all he should have done,
1:27:13 > 1:27:16but I think many of us must think that.
1:27:20 > 1:27:24There is that thread of melancholy,
1:27:24 > 1:27:26a nervous sensitivity,
1:27:26 > 1:27:32which was not confident about his music and what he'd achieved.
1:28:07 > 1:28:09That's a new experience for me.
1:28:09 > 1:28:11That's what so wonderful
1:28:11 > 1:28:15is discovering even more of his extraordinary...
1:28:20 > 1:28:23What is so wonderful, I think, is we so rely on
1:28:23 > 1:28:29people like that and composers to interpret
1:28:29 > 1:28:33the extraordinary moments that we as human beings face,
1:28:33 > 1:28:36whether it's coming into this world or
1:28:36 > 1:28:42somehow finding ways of dealing with the... um...
1:28:42 > 1:28:45the stresses and strains and challenges of being human.
1:28:45 > 1:28:48And then, of course, the departure from this life.
1:28:48 > 1:28:51If it wasn't for these remarkable composers we wouldn't be able
1:28:51 > 1:28:58to find a way of relating to these extraordinary mysteries, really.
1:28:58 > 1:29:03So thank goodness for people like Sir Hubert Parry.
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