A master of American choral music, she wrote arrangements of hymns, folk songs and spirituals used in concert halls and churches countrywide.
Alice Parker, whose arrangements of hymns, folk songs, and spirituals were used in concert halls and churches across America, and who composed 11 song cycles and four operas, died on Dec. 24 at her home in Hawley, Mass. She was 98.
Her death was confirmed by two of her children, Molly Stejskal and David Pyle.
Ms. Parker’s simple renderings of traditional hymns like “Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal,” spirituals like “You Can Tell the World,” and Christmas carols and folk songs, made her a trusted partner for choirs all over the country.
For two decades she also worked with the most prominent American chorus of her day, the Robert Shaw Chorale, collaborating with Mr. Shaw on hundreds of works.
Insightful settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and Archibald MacLeish gave her a footing in the world of the art song.
