Skip to main content

Early music manuscripts of Sir Hubert Parry

 Single Item
MS. Mus. b.401

  • How to
The manuscripts cover predominantly the period from Parry's time at Oxford (1867-1870), where he studied Law and Modern History at Exeter College. The collection comprises a variety of early compositions in various stages of completion, including some complete or almost complete (such as an Evening Service in D) to more fragmentary sketches. Present are also exercises in orchestration from Parry's studies of composition with Henry Hugo Pierson in Stuttgart in the summer of 1867.

Vocal music:
  1. Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D (with performance or editorial markings) - score
  2. 'Come when the waves are rocking' for medium voice and piano (fragment) - score
  3. 'Day of life thine hours are fast' for high voice unaccompanied
  4. 'Dost thou idly ask to hear' for SATB and piano – score and 4 individual parts, dated June 1867
  5. 'Love me not for comely grace' for medium voice and piano - score
  6. 'My passion you regard with scorn' for high voice unaccompanied
  7. 'Now all the world lies hushed in slumberous rest' for high voice and piano (fragment) – score
  8. 'One day I was watching a boat' for high voice and piano - score
  9. 'Pure spirit O where art thou now' for 2T and 2B (with HP’s note) - score with 3 individual parts
Orchestral works:
  1. 'Intermezzo religioso' - score, 2 piano scores (fragments) and parts
  2. Sketch for a march? in C major - short score
  3. Fragment for orchestra in C minor - score
Ensemble works:
  1. String quartet in D major (Allegro, Andante), dated June 1867 - score
  2. String trio in D minor (fragment) - score
  3. String quartet in F (fragment) - score
  4. Piano quartet in G major (sketch) - score
Works for piano and piano duet:
  1. 'A little forget-me-not'; complete work with additional 2-bar sketch, dated June 1872 - eventually published as as 'Melody' in 'St George's Series for Organ' (1910) nd no. 3, 'Romance' in 'Five romantic pieces for piano' (1923)
  2. ['A pastoral', no. 1 from 'Sonnets and songs without words. Book 1'] - first 18 bars
  3. Andante non troppo in B flat major
  4. Composition in G major (fragment)
  5. Piano duet in C major? (various sketches)
  6. Piano duet in D minor (draft)
  7. Piano duet in A minor (draft)
Various sketches (in ink and pencil) - 5 leaves and 4 biofolia

Music by other composers, copied by Parry:
  1. 'Entreact to Egmont. Beethoven' - score
  2. 'March from H. H. Pierson's 'Faust''; with 2 pages of Rossini's 'Guillaume Tell' - score
  3. 20 pages of orchestration from Rossini's 'Guillaume Tell'; with 9 pages of 'La Dame Blanche' (Boieldieu)
  4. Overture to Weber's 'Der Frieschütz' - score
  5. 'A scene from Boccaccio's 'Decameron' - score


  • 1867-1872


1 box

Language of Materials

English (vocal works).

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. Mus. b.401].


MS. Mus. b.401

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 11932


Autograph music manuscripts of Hubert Parry's compositions predominantly from his time at Oxford in various levels of completeness, 1867-1872.

Biographical / Historical

Sir (Charles) Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918), baronet, was a composer and historian of music. For details of his life and work see Oxford Music Online.

Until they were offered for sale at Chorley's in 2016, the manuscripts had been in the possession of the Parry family at Highnam in Gloucestershire. They represent Parry's formative years prior to becoming one of the most prominent of English composers.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Chorley's, March 2016 with the support of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the Bodleian.
Cataogue of early music manuscripts of Sir C.H.H. Parry, 1867-1872
Margaret Czepiel
Language of description

Repository Details

Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository

Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom