Ave Maria 

Robert Parsons

Ave Maria gratia plena,
Dominus tecum:
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Amen.

The words of this motet are found in verses 28 and 42 of the first chapter of St Luke’s Gospel. Robert Parsons (c1530 – 1570) was born in Newark-upon-Trent and became a “Singing Gentleman of the Chapel Royal” in 1563. Whilst little is known about his life, he seems to have had much in common musically with his contemporary William Byrd, not least his predilection for writing extended Latin motets in the face of a new Protestant regime and at a time when anti-Catholic feelings were running high.

This glorious five-part Marian motet is one of a number of works written to honour the Blessed Virgin, and the music is characterised by a rich harmonic texture with much passing and suspended dissonance, and beautifully constructed contrapuntal lines. Byrd was organist of Lincoln Cathedral from 1563 until 1572, and, in 1567, Parsons left the Chapel Royal and was granted a crown lease on three rectories near to Lincoln. There is no evidence that Byrd and Parsons met each other, or even knew of each other, and Parsons seems not to have had any connection with the cathedral at Lincoln, but it seems an extraordinary coincidence that two such great composers, with so much in common, living so close to each other, were not in touch. (Byrd left Lincoln in 1572 to become Organist of the Chapel Royal, where Parsons had been a singer.)

Parsons was drowned at the age of about 40 when crossing the River Trent on his horse at the infamous flood-prone river crossing at Newark. The horse survived. Robert Dow’s comment, made in 1580, suggests that Parsons died at the height of his powers: 

“Qui tantus primo Parsone in flore fuisti, quantus in autumno in morere fores.”

(Parsons, you who were so great in the springtime of life, how great you would have been in the autumn, had not death intervened.)