Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Parry, Joseph
PARRY, JOSEPH (1841–1903), musical composer, born on 21 May 1841 at Merthyr Tydel, was son of Daniel Parry (d. 1867), an ironworker of that town, by his wife Mary. A brother (Henry) and two sisters (Jane and Elizabeth) gained some prominence as vocalists in the United States (Y Cerddor Cymreig, 1869, p. 15). Joseph started work at the puddling furnaces before he was ten. In 1853 his father emigrated to the United States, and the family followed in 1854, settling at Danville, Pennsylvania. Parry first studied music at about seventeen years of age, attending a class conducted by two of his Welsh fellow-workers at the iron-works. At an eisteddfod held at Danville at Christmas 1860 he won his first prize for composition, namely for a temperance march. Next year a subscription raised by the Welsh colony at Danville enabled Parry to study at a normal college at Genesee, New York. He returned after a short course to become organist at Danville. After winning many prizes at American eisteddfods, he sent several pieces for competition to the national eisteddfod held at Swansea in September 1863 and at Llandudno in August 1864, and at each gained prizes. In the summer of 1865 he attended the Aberystwyth eisteddfod, where the title 'Pencerdd America' was conferred on him. A glee, 'Ar don o flaen gwyntoedd,' published shortly afterwards at Wrexham, was widely popular in Wales, and appeared in New York in 'Y Gronf a Gerddorol' of Hugh J. Hughes (Y Drych, 19 March 1903). On his return to America, a fund was started to enable him to pursue his musical education. In aid of the fund Parry gave a series of concerts in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, generally singing songs of his own composition (Y Cerddor Cymreig, 1870, p. 30). Meanwhile he was awarded prizes for his cantata 'The Prodigal Son' at Chester eisteddfod, September 1866 (still in MS., though the overture to it was played at the Royal Academy of Music in 1871), and for his glee 'Rhosyn yr Haf' (published in 1867) at Utica (January 1867).
In 1868 Parry and his family (he was already married) removed to London, and in September he entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied for three years, and won the bronze and silver medals. In 1871 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Cambridge. His exercise, a choral fugue in B minor, was performed at the Academy concert on 21 July. After going back to America to keep a music school at Danville (1871–3) he became professor of music at the newly founded University College of Wales at Aberystwyth. The appointment gave a great impetus to musical studies in Wales. He proceeded Mus.Doc. at Cambridge in 1878, his exercise, a cantata, 'Jerusalem,' being performed by a Welsh choir from Aberdare. When the Aberystwyth professorship was discontinued in 1879 (Davies and Jones, University of Wales, pp. 121, 133), Parry kept a private school of music, first at Aberystwyth and then (1881-8) at Swansea. In 1888 he was appointed lecturer, and subsequently professor of music, at the University College, Cardiff, which he held (together with the directorship of a private musical institute in the town) till his death at his residence, Cartref, Penarth, on 17 Feb. 1903. He was buried at St. Augustine's, Penarth.
Joseph Parry was a most prolific composer. One of his first published pieces was a song, 'My Childhood's Dreams,' issued from Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1865 (Cerddor Cymreig, Sept. 1865, p. 69). His opera ' Blodwen,' with Welsh words by Richard Davies (Mynyddog), performed from MS. at Aberystwyth and Aberdare in 1878, and later at the Alexandra Palace, London, but not published tiU 1888 (Swansea), has been performed hundreds of times in Wales, most often, however, as a cantata. It was the first opera performed in the Welsh language. His other operas include 'Virginia,' written in 1882 but still in MS., based on incidents in the American civil war; 'Sylvia' (1889), the words by his son, David Mendelssohn; 'Ceridwen,' a one-act dramatic cantata, first performed at the Liverpool eisteddfod, 1900; and 'The Maid of Cefn Ydfa' (words by Joseph Bennett), first produced by the Moody Manners Co. at the Grand Theatre, Cardiff, on 14 Dec. 1902.
Parry was also the author of two oratorios, 'Emmanuel,' performed at St. James's Hall, London, in 1880, but not published till 1882 (Swansea), and 'Saul of Tarsus,' first performed at the Rhyl eisteddfod on 8 Sept. 1892 (pubUshed London, 1893); also the following cantatas, 'The Birds' (Wrexham, 1873); 'Nebuchadnezzar' (London, 1884); 'Cambria' (first performed at the Llandudno eisteddfod, 1896); 'Joseph' (Swansea, 1881). His contributions to sacred music include some 400 hymn tunes, the best known being 'Aberystwyth,' composed on 3 July 1877 for the second volume (1879) of the Welsh Congregationalists' Hymnal of Edward Stephen (Tanymarian) [q. v.] This and sixty-six other tunes and a number of short anthems were published by Parry in 1892 as a Welsh national tune-book. The copyright in these and in a Sunday-school tune-book ('Telyn yr Ysgol Sul,' first published in 1877) was acquired after Dr. Parry's death by the Welsh Congregational Union, to which connexion Parry belonged. The appearance of his anthems resulted in a great advance in Welsh sacred music, and his setting of 'The Lord is my Shepherd' is said to rival Schubert's.
He edited and harmonised the music of a 'National Collection of Welsh Songs,' entitled 'Cambrian Minstrelsie' (Edinburgh, 6 vols. 1893). He also brought out a collection of his own songs, 'Dr. Parry's Book of Songs' (in five parts with portrait of the author), and issued a Welsh handbook on theory, being part i. of an intended series on music ('ELfenau Cerddoriaeth,' Cardiff, 1888).
Parry married (at Danville) Jane daughter of Gomer Thomas, who survived him with one son, David Mendelssohn, and two daughters. Of two sons who predeceased him, William Stemdale (1872-1892) and Joseph Haydn Parry (1864-1894), the latter, who showed much musical promise, was appointed professor at the Guildhall school of music in 1890, and composed, among other works, 'Cigarette,' a comic opera (the libretto by his brother, David Mendelssohn Parry), produced on 15 Aug. 1892 at the Theatre Royal, Cardiff, and in September at the Lyric Theatre, London, and 'Miami,' a more ambitious work, set to an adaptation of ' The Green Bushes,' and produced 16 Oct. 1893 at the Princess's Theatre, London (Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, 1907, v. 499; Western Mail, 30 March 1894; Annual Register, 1894, p. 157 ; Mardy Rees, Notable Welshmen, 432).
[For his life to 1868 see contemporary references in the Welsh musical monthly, Y Cerddor Cymreig, between 1865 and 1871 (see especially that for 1871, pp. 65-7); articles by his pupil. Prof. David Jenkins, Mus.Bac. Aberystwyth, in Y Cerddor for March 1903 (p. 27), Feb. 1904 (p. 16), and April 1911, and by Mr. D. Emlyn Evans in the same magazine for December 1903, p. 130; the Welsh American weekly, Y Drych (Utica), for 26 Feb., 19 and 26 March 1903, and subsequent issues (not always trustworthy); The Times, and Western Mail (Cardiff), 18 Feb. 1903; T. R. Roberts's Eminent Welshmen, 1907, p. 403 (with photo.); Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians (1907); Baker's Biog. Dict. of Music, 1900 (with portrait); and Y Geninen for 1903, p. 73, and for 1906, p. 237; Cymru, xxxii. 168.]