The Music of Robert Parsons

Midlands Early Music Forum

Parsons, you who were so great in the springtime of life, how great you would have been in the autumn, had death not come. This Latin epitaph by the copyist, Robert Dow, is from a collection of partbooks produced in the 1580s, a decade or so after Parsons’ death. Robert Parsons (c. 1535-1572) is remembered today as a masterful life cut short when he drowned in the Trent. His music provides a remarkable link between the opulence of late 15th century composers such as those in the Eton Choirbook (e.g., Cornysh, Browne) and the emotional precision of artists like Shakespeare and Tomkins (who was born in the year Parsons died). It’s as if Parsons channelled his grandparents and grandchildren all at once. We will be singing the following pieces: O bone Jesu sings the soaring lines of Roman Catholic England before Henry VIII’s birth; Retribue is a detailed discussion of faith from the fraught period after Henry’s death; and Ave Maria is so pure and timeless that it is almost an icon for the ear.

The Tutor, William Carslake, studied orchestral conducting with Martyn Brabbins, Jorma Panula and Ilya Musin, and singing with David Lowe and Peter Alexander Wilson. He was a busy bass-baritone soloist before he decided to focus exclusively on conducting and composing. He has since held two composing residencies at Banff Centre, Canada. He composes music inspired by outdoor places such as Greenland, the Cairngorms and, currently, peatlands in Ireland. He has composed for the Finzi Trust and Imperial College Sinfonietta, and is currently writing for Orchestra of the Swan. He is Artistic Director of Farnborough Symphony Orchestra and co-directs the Farnborough Young Composers’ Competition. He was Music Director for the Royal Ballet’s Elizabeth in 2016 and 2018. He enjoys directing programmes for EMF forums and Lacock Courses.