When icicles hang by the wall, 1862. Unknown engraver, after a drawing by Sir John Gilbert, history painter and draughtsman, 1817-1897. Etching. Illustration of the song "When icicles hang by the wall" from Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost, act 5, scene 2, in The Poets of the Elizabethan Age. London: Sampson Low, Son, Co., 1862, 38. General Collections, Library of Congress. LC call number: PR1207. P6 Copy 2
While he lived in New York, Parker developed many relationships with fellow musicians that led to frequent performances of his compositions. One of these relationships was with Frank Van der Stucken, the conductor of the New York Arion Society male chorus. Van der Stucken's choir performed many of Parker's works for male chorus, and may have taken his part-song Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, op. 14, on its first European tour in 1892. This setting of William Shakespeare's poem from As You Like It features effective word painting and text declamation, for example, the repetitive crescendos on the word "blow" and "freeze" and the descriptive snap rhythm of "holly" and "jolly." The ornamental piano accompaniment adds vivid color to the work's texture; its compound meter provides an unsettling contrast to the duple rhythm of the choral parts. Written in 1888, the octavo was not published until 1892 by G. Schirmer.