Parable Music II: The Church Parables

Abstract Cantata misericordium is a biblical parable which ends with a clear spiritual message; in this the work has a close relationship with the three Church Parables, the first of which (Curlew River) was written in the early months of 1964—less than a year after the completion of the cantata. Like the cantata, the Church Parables are set between a framing introduction and epilogue, in which the moral and spiritual message is expounded—respectively Faith, Hope, and Love. Robin Holloway finds this sequence ‘a little laboured’, since he believes that Curlew River embodies all three qualities. He goes on to suggest that ‘if the three parables have a common theme it is the drabbest stoicism: make do, knuckle under, hold fast, carry your burden, forgive and forget, dutifully kill the fatted calf’.