Editing Hubert Parry (section)

===Double harness===
After leaving Exeter College, Oxford. Parry was an [[underwriter]] at [[Lloyd's of London]] from 1870 to 1877.<ref name=grove>{{cite Grove|last=Dibble|first=Jeremy|author-link=Jeremy Dibble|id=20949|title=Parry, Sir (Charles) Hubert (Hastings)|year=2001}}</ref> He found the work uncongenial and wholly contrary to his talents and inclinations, but felt obliged to persevere with it, to satisfy not only his father, but his prospective parents-in-law. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Maude Herbert (1851–1933), second daughter of the politician [[Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea|Sidney Herbert]] and his wife [[Elizabeth Herbert, Baroness Herbert of Lea|Elizabeth]]. His in-laws agreed with his father in preferring a conventional career for him, although Parry proved as unsuccessful in insurance as he was successful in music.<ref name=times/> He and his wife had two daughters, [[Dorothea Ponsonby|Dorothea]] and [[Gwendoline Plunket Greene|Gwendolen]], named after [[George Eliot]] characters.<ref name=dnb/>{{efn|1=The elder daughter, Dorothea (1876–1963), married the politician [[Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede|Arthur Ponsonby]] in 1898, and had a son and a daughter.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130626181657/http://www.stanford.edu/group/auden/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I22313&ged=auden-bicknell.ged "Dorothea Parry"], ''W. H. Auden – Family Ghosts'', [[Stanford University]], accessed 18 April 2013.</ref> The younger daughter, Gwendolen Maud (1878–1959), married the baritone [[Harry Plunket Greene]] (1865–1936) and had two sons and a daughter.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130626181320/http://www.stanford.edu/group/auden/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I22307&ged=auden-bicknell.ged&tab=0 "Gwendolen Maud Parry"], ''W. H. Auden – Family Ghosts'', Stanford University, accessed 18 April 2013.</ref>}}

[[File:Bennett-Dannreuther.jpg|thumb|left|Parry studied with [[William Sterndale Bennett]] (l) and [[Edward Dannreuther]]]]
Parry continued his musical studies alongside his work in insurance. In London he took lessons from [[William Sterndale Bennett]], but finding them insufficiently demanding{{efn|1=Parry wrote, "He was kind and sympathetic, but he was too sensitive ever to criticize".{{sfn|Dibble|1992|pp=77–78}}}} he sought lessons from [[Johannes Brahms]].<ref name=dnb/> Brahms was not available, and Parry was recommended to the pianist [[Edward Dannreuther]], "wisest and most sympathetic of teachers".<ref name=hadow/> Dannreuther started by giving Parry piano lessons, but soon extended their studies to analysis and composition. At this stage in his musical development, Parry moved away from the classical traditions inspired by [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]. Dannreuther introduced him to the music of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], which influenced his compositions of these years.{{sfn|Allis|2002|pp=20–23}}

At the same time as his compositions were coming to public notice, Parry was taken up as a musical scholar by [[George Grove]], first as his assistant editor for his new ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', to which post Parry was appointed in 1875 and contributed 123 articles. Among those who benefited from these writings was the young [[Edward Elgar]]; he did not attend a music college and, as he said in later life, had been most helped by Parry's articles.{{sfn|Reed|1946|p=11}} In 1883, Grove, as the first director of the new [[Royal College of Music]], appointed him as the college's professor of composition and musical history.<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Parry-Mackenzie-Stanford.jpg|thumb|right|Parry (back l.), in 1910 with [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] (front c.), [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] (front r.), [[Edward German]] (back r.) and [[Daniel Eyers Godfrey|Dan Godfrey]]]]
Parry's first major works appeared in 1880: a piano concerto, which Dannreuther premiered, and a choral setting of scenes from [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]]'s ''Prometheus Unbound''.<ref>[https://www.musicwebinternational.com/2023/10/parry-prometheus-unbound-chandos/ 'Scenes from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound'], Chandos CD CHSA5317 (2023), reviewed at ''MusicWeb International''</ref>  The first performance of the latter has been held to mark the start of a "[[English Musical Renaissance|renaissance" in English music]], but was regarded by many critics as too avant garde.<ref name=hadow/> Parry scored a greater contemporary success with the ode ''[[Blest Pair of Sirens]]'' (1887), commissioned by and dedicated to [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], one of the first British musicians to recognise Parry's talent. Stanford described Parry as the greatest English composer since Purcell.<ref name=hadow/> ''Blest Pair of Sirens'', a setting of [[John Milton|Milton]]'s [[Milton's 1645 Poems|"At a Solemn Musick"]], suggested as a text by Grove, established Parry as the leading English choral composer of his day; this had the drawback of bringing him a series of commissions for conventional oratorios, a genre with which he was not in sympathy.<ref name=grove/>