Ben Parry's Ely Canticles
Ben Parry (born 1965) is a composer (who Ruth has worked with in his role as co-director of London Voices). He has sung with and directed the Swingle Singers.
HE wrote the canticles for Pembroke College Girls Choir. Anna Lapwood who conducted write the following “This uplifting setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis was the first set of canticles the girls ever learnt, and was sung at the first Evensong of the Girls’ Choir. The choristers were shocked to learn that there was another composer called Parry, and quickly took to referring to Ben as ‘the real Parry’. This is one of my favourite pieces to conduct because of the smiles that are on the girls’ faces while they are singing it—the positive energy really is infectious. I find the Nunc dimittis to be heartbreakingly beautiful; there is a lovely moment at ‘to be a light’ where the writing suddenly breaks into harmony. I remember us singing this through during a video rehearsal in the first lockdown and one of the girls started crying at that moment because she said that chord made her realise what she was missing by not being able to sing in person. We sang this piece in our first rehearsal back after each lockdown, and there were happy tears every time.”
Here are the choir’s recordings of the pieces:
Nunc Dimittis