Horatio Parker: "Mona" Prelude

[@ArtisWodehouse]

Thanks so much for posting! Yes, it is quite beautiful, and now I'm going to try to find out more about this opera.

[@christophercrimmins6143]

I had the pleasure of perusing through the orchestral score at Yale last summer. If a great American opera exists, it is surely this one. I've been playing through the vocal score for years and it really amazes me how this masterpiece was never given a chance. All of the mostly positive reviews at the time of the premier seemed not to have phased anyone and Parker died a few years later unrecognized for his monumental contribution to opera in english.

[@jksteven1]

+Christopher Crimmins - Wouldn't you think there would be a CD release of the opera available? This sad neglect is the plight of Parker and most of his peers. Of course Charles Ives did his old teacher no service by the kind of criticism he gave as he did. I believe Americans have traditionally been sheep and have followed the opinions of the musical establishment which seems to have espoused the view that American music was essentially derivative from its European roots and really not worth the attention. Today I do believe there is a growing new generation who are rediscovering this"Lost Generation" of composers of which Parker was among the first. Maybe Dutton or Naxos will get smart and issue the opera as a concert performance which might someday lead to a revival of the opera on stage somewhere. We can hope. Thanks very much for your comments and your interest.P.S. I have some recorded excerpts of the opera recorded back in the 1950's during one of its rare revivals. The recording is horrendously poor and really not uploadable. That performance was a truly lost opportunity to get this opera recorded professionally and up and in the public eye. Jk

[@harryandruschak2843]

According to Wikipedia, MONA was an opera composed in 1912. I wonder how many performances it had, if any?

[@jksteven1]

+Harry Andruschak According to Groves, Mona was performed at least once...possibly three times...at the Met in 1912.

[@antonycooke6402]

Horatio Parker was a victim of his time and place, his music thoroughly well-conceived and executed. However, by the time he wrote even his most daring music, its language already was far behind the rapidly emerging new sounds of the twentieth century. Living in the shadow of his iconic protege, Charles Ives, doesn't help, either. As a consequence, Parker's music has long been perceived as dated (which, by and large, it was, even if not to American ears of the time), rather than as good as it really is. Regardless, because Parker did not compose in an especially novel manner, his music is easily mistaken for that of any number of other composers from a few years earlier. Perhaps his time will finally come, although one suspects that, like many other forgotten figures, Parker's music did not upend enough stones along music's new highway to cause much traffic to stop and and visit, and as such, the status quo might never change.

[@peterurquhart4411]

Surely the impact of WW 1 resulting in American revulsion against German culture had something to do with disappearance Parker’s music. I've read the memoir by his daughter Isabel Parker Semler, which even as late as 1942 remained oblivious of Charles Ives, his student. Ives himself was barely noticed until the late 40's. After his death in 1954, Ives' comments may have not helped his teacher's reputation, but by that point, Parker and his generation were long forgotten. That's the pattern in American musical history; Ives is being shelved currently for his gendered remarks. Music is supported only to the extent that it will sell things.