Background
Parris, Robert was born on May 21, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Louis and Rae (Oettinger) Parris.
Parris, Robert was born on May 21, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Louis and Rae (Oettinger) Parris.
Bachelor of Science in Music Education, University of Pennsylvania, 1945; Master of Sciences, University Pennsylvania, 1946; Bachelor of Science, Juilliard School Music, 1948; student, Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, Frnace, 1952-1953.
After a year of study on a Fulbright Fellowship in Paris (where he was meant to study with Arthur Honegger, but hardly ever saw him), and a year teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, he settled in the Washington, District of Columbia area in 1952. Parris joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1963 where he taught theory and composition. His first international recognition came in 1958 with his Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, premiered by tympanist Fred Begun and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, under Howard Mitchell.
Parris was notorious for pushing instruments to the limits of any player"s abilities: his solo violin sonata is particularly difficult, and the composer-directors of Cryptography Research Inc believed his trombone concerto to be unplayable until they heard a recording of lieutenant
But he was also the most inventive of orchestrators: Parris"s concerto for kettledrums was always a crowd-pleaser in performance because it was so surprisingly melodic: its last movement is built around a traditional hymn (like Copland"s Appalachian Spring) but Parris gives the initial statements of that hymn—and its dramatic summation—to the kettledrums. Begun, the NSO principal tympanist who premiered the piece, made the original suggestion for the piece, but he later remarked, ""I suggested five drums jestingly."
In the sixties and seventies Parris was a sometime music critic for The Washington Post and the Washington Evening Star.
In this period Parris—who taught himself Spanish—also turned to Borges for inspiration and produced the Book of Imaginary Beings (Participant I) a work for flute (pic), violin, cello, piano, celeste, and percussion, from 1972. Participant II was published in 1983.
A revival of the Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, also in 1983, by the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich, was such a success that it resulted in new performances of his Concerto for Trombone (first performed in 1964) by the NSO in 1985 and, then, to Parris"s largest commission.
His Symphonic Variations, performed in 1988 to great acclaim, was the result.