c. 1535 – 25 January 1572
Born during the Tudor period, Parsons composed against the backdrop of England’s shifting religious landscape. His music danced through the reigns of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I. Church Music Maestro: Parsons’s claim to fame lies in his compositions of church music. He wove intricate harmonies that resonated within sacred spaces. His earliest known work, the First Service, set text from the 1549 Prayer Book of King Edward VI. Imagine those notes echoing through ancient stone cathedrals—the dawn of English-language liturgy. This service included canticles for Morning and Evening Prayer, a Credo, and Responses for the Holy Communion service. Parsons was actively composing from at least the early 1550s.
Parsons’s choral motets were his pièce de résistance. He mastered polyphonic writing, skillfully weaving voices like threads in a rich fabric. His setting of Ave Maria remains a gem—a celestial tapestry of devotion, especially the anthem “Deliver me from mine enemies”—a plea set to harmonies that touched souls.
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