Introduction

Biography

Parker was the son of Ab­ra­ham and Mar­tha Park­er. Mu­sic­al­ly in­clined, they named most of their children af­ter com­pos­ers.

By the time Han­del was se­ven years old, the fa­mi­ly was liv­ing in the ham­let of Marsh, and Han­del was play­ing flute in the Drum and Fife Band in Ox­en­hope (near Keigh­ley). At age 14, he be­gan play­ing the par­ish church’s or­gan.

He left school at age 13 to work in a tex­tile mill, and around age 20 be­came a pro­fess­ion­al mu­si­cian. He taught flute, vio­lin, and trom­bone, played and con­duct­ed brass bands in West York­shire (in­clud­ing one at Ha­worth, the town known as the home of the Brontë sis­ters and the fic­tion­al Rail­way Child­ren).

Parker als­o gave or­gan re­cit­als and con­duct­ed choirs. For a while, he was or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter at the ca­thed­ral in Nas­sau, Ba­ha­mas.