Alice Parker Pyle

Alice Parker Pyle

Hawley, MA - Alice Parker Pyle, noted choral composer, conductor and teacher, and beloved mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother, died peacefully on December 24, 2023, at her home in Hawley, Massachusetts, surrounded by her family. She was 98 years old.

Born in Boston on December 16, 1925, to Gordon Parker and Mary Shumate Stuart Parker, she grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. The family spent summers and vacations at Singing Brook Farm, the property in western Massachusetts that her father had purchased in 1920. Alice had a lifelong love of this country home. She continued to spend summers there with her own children as they grew, and in 1990 bought and converted the old "Town House" at the edge of the property and moved there permanently.

She attended Smith College, majoring in organ, and went on to get her master's degree in choral conducting from the Juilliard School where she began her long association with Robert Shaw. The many Parker/Shaw settings of American folksongs, hymns and spirituals from that period form an enduring repertoire for choruses all around the world. Her association with Shaw also led her to meet baritone Thomas Floyd Pyle, who sang in and was the General Manager of the Robert Shaw Chorale. They married on August 20, 1954, and had five children. While raising a family, in addition to researching and arranging music for the Shaw Chorale albums and composing new works, she taught piano and music classes, and volunteered at the Riverside Church and at many school concerts. Alice and Tom also collaborated musically, and many of the baritone solos in her compositions were written for his voice.

After Tom's sudden death in 1976, realizing that she needed to be the family provider, Alice began to expand her activities. In 1985, she founded Melodious Accord, a not-for-profit corporation which enabled her to initiate a number of activities, based on her view of her career as being a "three-legged stool", the "legs" being composing, conducting, and teaching. The Musicians of Melodious Accord, a sixteen-voice professional chorus, released fifteen albums under her direction, recording many of Alice's works. The Melodious Accord Fellowship Program brought together small groups of musicians for intensive, multi-day sessions under her mentorship; over the years, several hundred "Fellows" participated. The organization also sponsored workshops, symposia, and Parker appearances, and for many years she toured the United States and Canada, leading performances and workshops on melody, improvisation, rehearsal techniques and score study. Whenever traveling to an event, she asked to stay in someone's home, rather than be put up in a hotel. In this way, she made countless friends and became honorary "aunt" or "grandmother" to their children.

Alice was famous for her community SINGS, which she led wherever she went and as part of any concert or workshop. Her joy in bringing people together to sing was contagious. By lining out traditional songs, hymns and carols in her own "congregational" voice, she invited participation; beyond bypassing any requirement for reading music, she demonstrated the benefits of leaving the page behind and learning by ear, where the expressiveness of the song is conveyed immediately, rather than being added in "after we learn the notes." A quote from the GIA Quarterly states, "What is missing from her mile-long list of accomplishments and duties is a description of her charisma in causing music to happen. Her understanding of the unaccompanied vocal line has caused some of the most enchanting music ever heard at a Conference. . . There is no one who is not a singer when she leads."

She was commissioned by hundreds of community, school, and church choruses. Her list of published compositions has over six hundred titles, ranging from operas and large choral-orchestral pieces through song cycles, cantatas and choral suites to many individual anthems. The "Melodious Accord Hymnal" contains her arrangements of many traditional folk hymns, as well as new settings of contemporary poets. An accomplished author as well as composer, Parker wrote a number of books on melodic styles, choral improvisation and church music. Her editorials on a wide range of subjects were the centerpiece of the Melodious Accord Newsletter. In a side column, "The View from Here," she mused on the turning of the seasons, current events, and life in general. She would write a poem or little song at the drop of a hat to celebrate someone's birthday or special occasion.

She served on the Board of Directors of Chorus America and was named its first Director Laureate in 2012. She was known for her homemade bread, and for many years offered, as an item in Chorus America's annual fundraising auction, to personally bake bread for the winner. For many years, she went to the winner's home to deliver this prize, and in later years, she invited the winner to her home.

She was the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, the Smith College Medal, the Harvard Glee Club Medal, and grants from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the American Music Center. Among the many awards she received were the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, the New England Public Radio Arts and Humanities Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Shaw Award from the American Choral Directors Association, and the National Opera Association Sacred in Opera Achievement Award. The International Emily Dickinson Society honored her for her many contributions to the interpretation of Dickinson's poetry through music. She was a Fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada and was named a Lifetime Member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

In 2020, Heritage Film Project produced a 30-minute documentary film about her, "Alice: At Home with Alice Parker," and in 2022 Pendragwn films produced "Spirituals: A Conversation with Alice Parker and André Thomas," an hour-long interview where she discussed her experience with Spirituals and her approach to arranging them, answering questions posed in advance by a panel of choral directors and musicians.

In addition to her professional activities, she was an active member of her community. She served on various committees of the Charlemont Federated Church and was a member of the board of Mohawk Trail Concerts and yhe Sons and Daughters of Hawley. She regularly opened her house for community gatherings, notably for her annual Christmas "open house" party. She will be remembered for her generosity of spirit, her positive outlook, her enormous energy, and her ability to uplift and unite communities through song.

Alice was predeceased by her parents, her two brothers, Harrison and Larimore Parker, and her sister Katharine Parker, as well as by her husband Thomas Floyd Pyle. She is survived by her sister Mary Stuart Cosby, her five children, David Stuart Pyle, Timothy McChesney Pyle, Katharine Gordon Bryda, Mary Parthenia Pyle Stejskal, and Elizabeth Thomas Pyle, their spouses, eleven grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren, and six nephews and nieces and their children and grandchildren.

A private memorial service is being planned. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Chorus America (specify the Alice Parker Fund in the memo field if sending a check), Greenfield Community College Foundation (specify the Harrison Parker Scholarship Fund in the memo field if sending a check), Mohawk Trail Concerts , Charlemont Federated Church (PO Box 248, Charlemont, MA 01339), or any charity that supports women in need.