finale, tremendous, though
somewhat long drawn out. Of this work, so careful a critic as W.J.
Henderson was moved to write:

"His melodic ideas are not only plentiful, but they are
beautiful, ... graceful and sometimes splendidly vigorous....
There is an a cappella chorus which is one of the finest
specimens of pure church polyphony that has been produced in
recent years.... It might have been written by Hobrecht,
Brumel, or even Josquin des Pres. It is impossible to write
higher praise than this.... The orchestration is
extraordinarily ... rich. As a whole ... the composition
... may be set down as one of the finest achievements of the
present day."

And Philip Hale, a most discriminant musical enthusiast, described the
chorus "Pars Mea" as:

"A masterpiece, true music of the church," to which "any
acknowledged master of composition in Europe would gladly
sign his name.... For the a cappella chorus there is nothing
but unbounded praise.... Weighing words as counters, I do not
hesitate to say that I know of no one in the country or in
England who could by nature and by student's sweat have
written those eleven pages.... I have spoken of Mr. Parker's
quasi-operatic tendency. Now he is a modern. He has shown in
this very work his appreciation and his mastery of antique
religious musical art. But as a modern he is compelled to
feel the force of the dramatic in religious music.... But his
most far-reaching, his most exalted and rapt conception of
the bliss beyond compare is expressed in the language of
Palestrina and Bach."

In September, 1899, the work was produced with decisive success in
London, Parker conducting.

Besides this, there are several secular cantatas, particularly "King
Trojan," which contains a singable tune for Trojan with many delicate
nuances in the accompaniment, and a harp-accompanied page's song that
is simply ambrosial. Then there is Arlo Bates' poem, "The Kobolds,"
which Parker has blessed with music as delicate as the laces of
gossamer-spiders.

His latest work is devoted to the legend of St. Christopher, and
displays the same abilities for massive and complex scoring whenever
the opportunity offers. On the other hand, the work discloses Parker's
weaknesses as well, for the libretto drags in certain love episodes
evidently thought desirable for the sake of contrast and yet
manifestly unnecessa