Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

Charles Hubert Hastings Parry was born at Bournemouth, England, on February 27, 1848. He studied at Eton and Oxford and continued his musical training while briefly working in insurance. George Grove recruited him to contribute to the Dictionary of Music and Musicians and, in 1883, appointed him professor of composition and musical history at the new Royal College of Music. Parry succeeded Grove as the college's director in 1895 and also served as Heather Professor of Music at Oxford from 1900 to 1908. His pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland.

Parry helped shape the English choral revival through works such as Blest Pair of Sirens, I Was Glad, and Songs of Farewell. His setting of William Blake's Jerusalem and the hymn tune REPTON remain especially familiar, but neither is the tune represented in this record. He died at Rustington, Sussex, on October 7, 1918, during the influenza pandemic, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

INTERCESSOR was composed for Ada R. Greenaway's text O Word of Pity, for Our Pardon Pleading and appeared in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Its 11.10.11.10 meter later allowed editors to pair it with Fred Pratt Green's English version of Bonhoeffer's poem. Parry therefore supplied a pre-existing tune, not music commissioned for Bonhoeffer or Green.