ABSTRACT
The prelude is one of Hubert Parry’s boldest orchestral creations, a successful English essay in Liszt’s harmonic idiom; Tannhauser is an influence. The ideas in the surging paragraphs of the opening prelude and chorus are used throughout to create a cyclic form which Parry would use but not over-use. The whole prelude is an almost unending series of resolving suspensions – a typical Parry device turned into a structural principle. The extended choral writing in Prometheus Unbound and especially in The Glories of Our Blood and State is closer to Blest Pair of Sirens than it sounds on first listening. Blest Pair of Sirens rolls along with a majestic splendour, the wide-arched melodic paragraphs are bridged seamlessly, the choral and orchestral sound combined and interwoven like dramatic cloud-landscapes of Constable. The achievement of Blest Pair of Sirens is that the essence of these national traditions is wedded to the powerful forces of chorus and orchestra.
