1919] on Hubert Hastings Parry 543 



his likeness and character upon them all, that any misgivings — and 

 I confess to have experienced some — concerning the difficulty of 

 treating them impartially or dispassionately were dispelled as if by an 

 encouraging and unbroken personal contact. 



It is by no means my intention to be biographical — that kind of 

 information is easily obtainable — but the case is singular : even 

 freakish. 



That Art can never have been, even in his earliest days, a mere 

 pastime or pleasant accomplishment is evident ; and that the 

 eminent master to be was one of Nature's own selection is equally 

 certain. To secure the degree of Bachelor of Music at eighteen 

 presupposes an amount of most earnest devotion and serious appli- 

 cation surely rare in the history of the leisured human boy ! 



Oddly enough we have a strikingly identical instance of precocity 

 and industry in the person of a certain William Crotch, who obtained 

 the like distinction (in 1794) at the same age. Parry was composing 

 at Eton at fourteen. Crotch produced an oratorio at Cambridge at 

 fourteen. 



Parry succeeded to the Directorship of the Royal College of 

 Music ; Crotch was the first Principal of the R.A.M. 



Xor does analogy quite end here ; Parry, inheriting his father's 

 artistic tastes, occupied himself at one time seriously with drawing ; 

 while Crotch became a skilled and well-known painter in water-coloui s. 

 There was, however, one happily short period in early manhood 

 when the absorbing passion for music had perforce to be subdued in 

 favour of a decidedly uncongenial occupation. And when he once, 

 with a hearty laugh, alluded to his Josses at Lloyd's as "the very 

 best thing that ever happened to me," I cordially agreed, and added 

 " and to us." 



The unskilled " 'prentice hand " is hardly traceable at all, even in 

 those many early examples of chamber music, then known only to 

 an intimate circle of friends. But technically ripe and finished as 

 these are, his natural buoyancy of spirits and habitually cheerful 

 outlook on life is more clearly revealed in the songs and other less 

 elaborate pieces composed about the same time. 



It was not until later, when a pianoforte concerto was played at 

 the Crystal Palace — where not a few of us were baptized about 

 the same period — and " Prometheus Unbound " was produced at 

 Gloucester in 1880, that the general public was faced and the 

 musician's career began in real earnest. Looking back over that 

 stretch of time we realise more clearly the reasons why the un- 

 doubtedly great merits of the cantata received no more than partial 

 recognition. The interminable Wagner disputation was then at 

 boiling-point. The German master's latter manner was yet far from 

 proving acceptable to all, even in his own country ; much less so in 

 ours, where a newly-awakened interest was just beginning to en- 

 courage native effort. The Wagner bewitchment is perceptible 



