One of my favorite Alice Parker pieces is her arrangement of “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye.”
This week I’m recommending some favorite Alice Parker arrangements and compositions from across her fruitful 6-decade career writing choral music.
Today: Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (link to publisher site)
Genre: Irish Folk Tune
Voicing: SATB A cappella
This Irish folk tune was set by Alice for the Robert Shaw Choral album Irish Folk Songs (1968). This was the final album of the 20-year Parker-Shaw collaborative recordings, and the one in which Parker had the least input from Shaw on the arrangements and even the recordings. It shows a sophistication beyond the seeming simplicity of the arrangement. Her writing is the clarity on the other side of complexity.
She described this folk tune as the “ultimate anti-war song.” And it’s true. Her arrangement is almost trance-like, with the drums in the lower voices growing louder, bringing the news of a soldier’s death in war. Tell the song right and it creates and almost magic spell on the audience. The challenge is not notes or rhythms, it’s in the storytelling that is required to bring it to life.
Video: Rockford Touring Choir, 2014 at the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia.
A final performance practice note. I knew Alice well enough to state with full confidence that her core belief was that only 5-10% of what she envisioned could make it to the page. She anticipated – she expected – that choral musicians would use her score as a starting point for a rich interpretation, and she was bored with performances that used the score as the endpoint rather than the beginning. You must have strong musical instincts and understanding of the tradition, but you must go beyond the score.