THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALICE PARKER AND ...

Shaw’s perspective on the legacy of the Parker-Shaw catalogue
It is interesting to note that Shaw himself never viewed the Parker-Shaw catalogue with a
great deal of respect. The Shaw Chorale never performed Parker-Shaw arrangements in the main
body of its concerts, with the exception of the spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel.” Shaw only used
them as encores, when a light crowd-pleaser was needed, and he never wanted any mention of
them in articles or interviews with him. 32 His attitude is best seen in an interview printed in the
Choral Journal at the time of his eightieth birthday. When asked by an interviewer if he found it
a positive sign of artistic growth and music education in America that many of the Parker-Shaw
works are now standard repertoire for many high school and college choruses, Shaw replied,
Certainly Alice Parker’s arrangements have both skill and taste, fit the human voice, and, in
certain ways, edify the human intelligence. I find it even more satisfying, however, that high
school and college choruses are singing Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Poulenc’s Mass in G,
and Schubert’s masses. I find this to be an even more significant sign of artistic growth. 33
Shaw begins by acknowledging Parker’s leading role in the arrangements. He goes on to praise
her work, and to ascribe to it skill, taste, and its ability in certain ways to edify the human
intelligence. Any arranger would be thrilled to receive such praise from Shaw, who could be
blistering in his criticism. 34 But then his comments take a turn, and we see that he places a
higher value on the performance of choral masterworks as a sign of positive artistic growth
among high school and college choruses than the performance of Parker-Shaw arrangements.
One may take some offense at this remark, and see it as something of a “put-down” of
Parker and of the entire library of works that the two created, but to understand it correctly, we
32
Parker, telephone interview with author, 6 Sep. 2010.
33
Jeffrey Baxter, “An Interview with Robert Shaw: Reflections at Eighty,” Choral Journal 36, no. 9 (April, 1996):
9, 10.
34
Personal observation, especially at the summer session at Westminster Choir College, 1987.
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