Introduction

Part of the title of this book is intended to resonate with a piece composed by Hubert Parry, one of the father figures of the so-called British Musical Renaissance. ¹ His Blest Pair of Sirens (At a Solemn Music), a setting of Milton’s ode for chorus and orchestra, was commissioned and premiered by Charles Villiers Stanford’s Bach Choir in 1887. The piece established Parry as the leading choral composer of his day and was written while the composer was Professor of Composition and Music History at the then newly founded Royal College of Music in London. It was a favourite piece of his pupil Ralph Vaughan Williams – another seminal renaissance figure – who, in turn, became the teacher of Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–94) and Grace Williams (1906–77) at the Royal College in the late 1920s. Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–83), an exact College contemporary of this blest pair, has been added to form a trio.