Horatio William Parker (September 15, 1863 – December 18, 1919) was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the undergraduate teacher of Charles Ives while the composer attended Yale University. Biography He was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts. His earliest lessons were with his mother. He then studied in Boston with George Whitefield Chadwick, Stephen A. Emery, and John Orth. His first professional position was playing the organ at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dedham, Massachusetts. He was paid a salary of roughly $300 a year from September 1880 to January 1882. He finished his formal education in Europe, a common destination for a young American composer in the 1880s, where he studied in Munich with Josef Rheinberger. His fellow students at the Royal Music School in Munich included Arthur Whiting and H. H. Huss. In Munich Parker composed his first significant works, including a symphony and a dramatic cantata. He also premiered Joseph Rheinberger's Organ Concerto No. 1 in F Major from 1884 there. After his return to the United States in 1885, he was for two years professor of music in the Cathedral School of St. Paul in Garden City, Long Island. From 1888 to 1893, he was organist of Trinity Church, New York City, and from 1893 to 1901 organist of Trinity Church, Boston. In 1893, Parker became Battell Professor of the theory of music at Yale University. He was appointed Dean of Music at that school in 1904, a position which he held for the rest of his life. The University of Cambridge bestowed on him the honorary degree Doctor of Music (Mus.Doc.) in May 1902. He directed the Derby Choral Club, organized by Frances Osborne Kellogg in Derby, Connecticut, for 16 consecutive seasons until his death. On December 30, 1915, he was elected as a national honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, the national fraternity for men in music. Parker died in Cedarhurst, New York. Parker was the uncle of Parker Bailey. His daughter's family still summers in Blue Hill, Maine where Parker was part of the early group of that resort's musically inclined rusticators. Composition Before leaving New York City in 1893, Parker had completed his oratorio, Hora Novissima, set to the opening words of De contemptu mundi by Bernard of Cluny.