THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALICE PARKER AND ...

CHAPTER 4
THE NATURE OF THE PARKER-SHAW ARRANGEMENTS
At the beginning of their collaboration, Shaw and Parker had no intention of creating a
series of arrangements. They simply worked on each current project, with no eye to the future. 38
Shaw’s first successful popular album of Christmas carols, which had been made before his work
with Alice Parker, was comprised primarily of the simple carol settings found in the Oxford
Book of Carols. 39 When Shaw conceived the idea of creating popular arrangements of folk
materials with Alice Parker, he realized that there were virtually none available. 40 Shaw knew
exactly the kind of musical sound and arranging approach he wanted, and this approach did not
change during the collaboration. His choral concept can be summarized in nineteen style
characteristics that emerge from studying the repertoire as a whole.
An in-depth examination of one arrangement in particular, “Sing to the Lord,”
demonstrates the Parker-Shaw style, and sheds light on the basic design of other arrangements.
A more general style analysis can be found in the spreadsheets in Appendix III, that contain
information on one hundred and thirty-six Parker-Shaw arrangements, and that present, among
other things, the scale or mode of the song’s melody, the performing forces employed, and the
usage of devices of imitation, pedal points, and ostinatos. Appendix IV contains a summary of
38 Parker, telephone interview with author, 15 Mar. 2012.
39 See footnote 3 on page 4.
40 Parker, telephone interview with author, 15 Mar. 2012. “There were the English folk song arrangements by Ralph
Vaughan Williams, but Shaw saw them as too symphonic in nature, and wanted an expanded repertoire that included
American and other folk songs as well.”
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