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• Parsley, Osbert: 2 Pieces

Parsley, Osbert: 2 Pieces

(Parsley´s Clocke and In nomine) for 5 instruments.

Osbert Parsley (1511-1585) seems to have worked mostly in the city of Norwich, which at that time was one of the most important centres in England. In Norwich Cathedral there is a commemorative inscription in his honour which is worth quoting in full:
OSBERTO PARSLEY Musicae Scientissimo Ei quondam Consociati Musici posuerunt
Anno 1585
Here lies the Man whose Name in Spight of Death
Renowned lives by Blast of Golden Fame:
Whose Harmony survives his vital Breath.
Whose Skill no Pride did spot whose Life no Blame.
Whose low Estate was blest with quiet Mind:
As our sweet Cords with Discords mixed be:
Whose Life in Seventy and Four Years entwin´d.
As falleth mellowed Apples from the Tree,
Whose Deeds were Rules whose words were Verity:
Who here a singing-man did spend his Days.
Full Fifty Years in our Church Melody
His Memory shines bright whom thus we praise.
As the above would suggest, Parsley was essentially a church musician, but a few instrumental pieces have survived. Thomas Morley must have held him in some esteem ' for he included an example of his music (a three-part canon on the Salvator Mundi) in A Plaine and Easie Introduction of 1597.
Parsley´s Clocke, which appears in another source as “A Song upon a Dial” ' is printed here after British Library, Add. MSS 30480-4. The long-note part, presumably intended to symbolise the striking of a clock, is set out here as it stands in the original, but it may well be intended to have all the notes tied, as there was no really satisfactory way in Parsley´s day of notating long notes of irregular length. The In nornine is printed after Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS d. 212- 6.
The original note values have been halved throughout.