(b Teignmouth, 28 Feb 1808; d Vienna, 25 Jan 1849). English harpist and composer. He studied with François Dizi and also worked with Théodore Labarre in London. For some time in the 1820s he was employed by the harp manufacturers Schwieso and Grosjean at their Soho Square premises, where he may have met the shadowy figure known as A. Alvars, who dedicated a harp piece to Frederick Grosjean, and who may well be the person whose surname Eli Parish appears to have adopted; at the same time he changed his name from Eli to Elias. It is as Elias Parish Alvars that his name appears on his earliest published compositions (Artaria, 1836).
From the early 1830s he was based mainly in Vienna, though he is known to have given concerts in Germany in 1830 and in Italy in 1833, when he shared a concert in Milan with John Field. In 1836 he was appointed first harp at the Imperial and Royal Opera of Vienna, but two years later he was back in London, dedicating his Concertino op.34 to Queen Victoria, and his Fantasia op.35 to Sigismond Thalberg, who is said to have developed his famous ‘three-handed’ piano technique in imitation of Parish Alvars's writing for the harp. A Grande fantaisie brillante for harp and piano based on Anna Bolena, La sonnambula and Lucia di Lammermoor and composed jointly with Carl Czerny can be dated to 1838. From 1839 until 1842 he made a leisurely tour of the Eastern Mediterranean, commemorated in his Voyage d'un harpiste en Orient op.62.
In May 1842 Parish Alvars bought his first new ‘Gothic’ model double-action harp from Pierre Erard. The acquisition of this more robustly constructed, mechanically superior instrument appears to have been significant; already unsurpassed as a virtuoso, he developed many innovative techniques, integrating pedal and manual skills in a completely unprecedented way, seizing brilliantly on the advantages and possibilities presented by the new harp, and engendering the enthusiasm of his contemporaries, among them Berlioz, Liszt and Mendelssohn. His innovations include chordal glissandi, double, triple and quadruple harmonics, the combination of harmonics with glissandi, the use of enharmonic effects (as in La danse des fées op.76), glissandi both with the pedals and with the tuning-key (Sérénade op.83), the pre-setting of pedals in such a way as to give an impression of brilliant virtuosity (Grand Study in Imitation of the Mandoline op.84) and the use of scordatura (Last Grand Fantasia).
Parish Alvars was in London again in 1846, this time with the intention of settling there permanently, but finding the musical establishment unsympathetic to the harp as a solo instrument, he returned to Vienna, where in 1847 he was appointed chamber musician to the emperor. His last important public appearance was at a concert of his own compositions in Vienna on 2 January 1848.
Parish Alvars's published compositions for the harp include over 80 works for solo harp, many of which are of phenomenal difficulty; three concertos, two concertinos (one for solo harp and one for two harps) and duos for harp and piano. His unpublished works include the fantasia Sounds of Ossian, among the most demanding solos ever written for the harp, a symphony, an overture inspired by Byron's Manfred, an opera The Legend of Teignmouth and two piano concertos. (H.-J. Zingel: Harfenmusik im 19. Jahrhundert: Versuch einer historischen Darstellung (Wilhelmshaven, 1976; Eng. trans., 1992)
ANN GRIFFITHS