CDA: Alice Parker

First off, my apologies for forgetting the Fabulous Friday yesterday...!

I read in the NY Times obit page this morning about the death of Alice Parker at age 98. I grew up on a steady diet of her choral arrangements, often in collaboration with Robert Shaw. Their names are often paired in a sort of portmanteau, ParkerShaw.

The Times described her music as "simple" which I find derogatory. Let's say it's not difficult to sing, and the musical language is accessible. But, as in lots of great music, the genius is hidden, so deeply embedded in the music that you don't notice it.

Here's the Parker Shaw arrangement of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale. My high school chorus sang this arrangement every year for a Memorial Day service in a local cemetery. Our conductor told me that he'd been conducting it every year for years and yet each time he noticed new nuances in the arrangement. That's music crafted at the highest level.