Introduction

Biography

Horatio was the son of Charles Ed­ward Park­er and Isa­bel­la Gra­ham Jen­nings, and hus­band of An­na Ploess­el.

He be­gan writ­ing music at age 15, and stu­died com­po­sition in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, un­der George Chad­wick.

He served as a church or­gan­ist in Ded­ham, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1880–82), then went on to stu­dy at the Mu­nich Con­ser­va­to­ry in Ger­ma­ny (1882–85). Later, he taught and served as a church mu­si­cian in New York Ci­ty (1886–93).

Parker was or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at Tri­ni­ty Church, Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1893–1902), then Pro­fess­or of Mu­sic (1894) and dean of the School of Mu­sic at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty (1904).

He con­duct­ed the New Ha­ven Sym­pho­ny (1895–1918) and the New Ha­ven Chor­al So­ci­ety (1903–14), and served as or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at St. Ni­cho­las’ Church, New York Ci­ty (1902–10).

Works

In 1893, his The Dream King and His Love won a prize from the Na­tion­al Con­ser­va­to­ry. His ora­to­ry Ho­ra No­vis­si­ma pre­miered in New York in 1893, and in 1899 be­came the first Am­eri­can work per­formed at the Three Choirs Fes­tiv­al in Wor­ces­ter, Eng­land.

He al­so wrote op­eras, Mo­na (1912) and Fai­ry­land (1915) be­ing the best known.