Eli Parish Alvars (sometimes Parish-Alvars)
Elias Parish Alvars by Josef Kriehuber - Public domain
Elias Parish Alvars, born on the 28th of February 1808 and died on the 25th of January 1849, was an English harpist and composer. He was born as Eli Parish in Teignmouth, Devon. His father was a local organist. His baptismal record at St James’s Church, West Teignmouth, Devon, reads: "Eli, son of Joseph and Mary Ann Parish".
Eli Parish gave his first concert in Totnes in 1818 and in 1820 was sent to London to study with Nicolas-Charles Bochsa.
In 1822 he applied to the Royal Academy of Music, where Bochsa had been appointed harp professor but was not accepted because he could not afford the tuition fees without a scholarship.
Eli was able to continue his lessons with Bochsa by undertaking to teach and playing at dances.
He was also later able to study in Paris, and in 1828 studied music in Florence, Italy.
Florence, Italy
At around this time, he changed his first name to Elias, he appears to have used the name Parish Alvars from the early 1830s. The origins of the name are unknown but could be his mother's maiden name.
In 1836, the first publication of his music by Artaria in Vienna used the name Elias Parish Alvars, which was subsequently used in all his publications.
Also in 1836, Alvars became the first harp at the Vienna Opera. His 1838 Fantasia, op. 35, is dedicated to Sigismond Thalberg, who is said to have been inspired by Alvars's playing to develop his own three-hand effect piano technique.
Elias' tour of the Near East in the period 1838-1842 resulted in his suite Voyage d'un harpiste en l' Orient, op. 79.
He married the harpist Melanie Lewy in 1842, a member of a Vienna-based family of musicians with whom Alvars frequently performed.
His pupils included Charlotte Rothschild of the Rothschild family, to whom he dedicated his Serenade, Op. 83.
In the same year, he acquired a double-action pedal harp designed by Pierre Érardthe innovations he was able to bring to harp technique using this new instrument impressed many of his fellow musicians including Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt.
Liszt wrote of Alvars "From beneath his forehead speak his dreamy eyes, expressive of the glowing imagination which lives in his compositions"; Berlioz called him "the Liszt of the harp".
Ferdinand I of Austria - By Leopold Kupelwieser - Unknown source, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=983096In 1847 Alvars was appointed chamber musician to Ferdinand I of Austria.
His last performance was in Vienna, at a concert of his own compositions, in January 1848.
On the 13th of March 1848, riots erupted in Vienna and in April, amid the general confusion, Elias found himself in serious financial trouble.
His health worsened suddenly and he died, probably of pneumonia, on the 25th of January 1849. He was buried in the St. Marx Cemetery.
Elias Parish Alvars grave St. Marx Cemetery Vienna - By Papergirl - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63000913
