Julia Perry (1924–79)
Composer
Works published by MoV
How beautiful are the feet (S & piano or organ)
How beautiful are the feet (S & piano or organ)
Composed near the beginning of her career in 1954, How beautiful are the feet is representative of Perry’s interest in using dissonance when harmonising seemingly simple melody. It is a trait that makes the piece rewarding to sing whilst creating a quirky sound-world that is characteristic of Perry’s mid-century compositions. Featuring added-note chords that are reminiscent of some late-Romantic styles, dissonance is used both as a device that shapes our understanding of the text, particularly during the interludes, and to add extra harmonic colour. In this way, the piece is eminently performable whatever the singers’ level of experience, whilst remaining a profoundly moving setting of a familiar text.
How beautiful are the feet (S & piano or organ)
This work is published in our anthology Volume 2
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Perusal score coming soon
(August 2025)
Julia Perry (1924–79)
Julia Perry experienced the conventional musical education available to mid-century American composers: Akron University and Westminster Choir College, Juilliard School of Music and the Berkshire Music Center (now the Tanglewood Music Center), followed by a brief spell, in 1952, studying with Nadia Boulanger in France. Accolades included winning the Boulanger Grand Prize for her Viola Sonata, Guggenheim fellowships and a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award. In addition to choral and vocal music, she wrote twelve symphonies, operas, piano concertos, and chamber pieces. Her oeuvre is particularly interesting because, whilst some of her early works do reference traditional African-American culture by drawing on the music of spirituals, the majority of her output is neo-Classical in style. Deceptively simple melodies belie both dissonant harmony and a complexity of rhythm that rewards attentive listening; Julia Perry is a composer who deserves to be more-frequently heard.
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