Musicians - Henry Purcell

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Henry Purcell

	Musicians - Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell (September 10, 1659 - November 21, 1695), a Baroque composer, is generally considered to be one of England's greatest composers — indeed, he has often been called England's finest native composer. Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements but devised a peculiarly English style of Baroque music.

Biography

Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His father, Henry Purcell , was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and sang at the coronation of King Charles II of England. Henry the elder had three sons, Edward, Henry, and Daniel. Daniel Purcell (d. 1717), the youngest of the brothers, was also a prolific composer.

After his father's death in 1664, young Henry Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Thomas Purcell (d. 1682), who showed him great affection and kindness. Thomas was himself a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel, and arranged for Henry to be admitted as a chorister. Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke (d. 1672), master of the children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey (d. 1674), Cooke's successor.

Purcell is said to have been composing at nine years old; but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670. (The dates for his compositions are often uncertain, despite considerable research). After Humfrey's death, Purcell continued his studies under Dr John Blow. He attended Westminster School and in 1676 he was appointed organist, at Westminster Abbey and in the same year he composed the music to John Dryden's Aureng-Zebe, and Thomas Shadwell's Epsom Wells and The Libertine. These were followed in 1677 by the music to Aphra Behn's tragedy, Abdelazar, and in 1678 by an overture and masque for Shadwell's new version of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. The chorus "In these delightful pleasant groves" from The Libertine is still performed.

In 1679, he wrote some songs for John Playford's Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues, and also an anthem, the name of which is not known, for the Chapel-Royal. From a letter written by Thomas Purcell, and still extant, we learn that this anthem was composed for the exceptionally fine voice of the Rev. John Gostling, then at Canterbury, but afterwards a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for this extraordinary voice, a basso profundo, which is known to have had a range of at least two full octaves, from D below the stave to D above it. The dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known; perhaps the most notable example is the anthem They that go down to the sea in ships. In thankfulness for a providential escape of the King from shipwreck, Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses from the Psalms in the form of an anthem, and requested Purcell to set them to music. The work is a very difficult one, including a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostling's voice, beginning on the upper D and descending two octaves to the lower.

In 1680, Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil, who was still only twenty-two. Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theatre. However, during the early part of the year, probably before taking up his new office, he had produced two important works for the stage, the music for Nathaniel Lee's Theodosius and Thomas D'Urfey's Virtuous Wife. The composition of his opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music, has been attributed to this period, though its earliest production has been shown by W. Barclay Squire to have been between 1688 and 1690. It was written to a libretto furnished by Nahum Tate, at the request of Josiah Priest, a professor of dancing, who also kept a boarding-school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester Fields and afterwards at Chelsea, where it is thought the opera had its premier. It is considered the first genuine English opera. Although it owes much to earlier semi-operas and masques, especially Blow's Venus and Adonis, there is no spoken dialogue, but instead the action progresses in recitatives. Dido and Aeneas never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to have been very popular among private circles. It is believed to have been extensively copied, but only one song was printed by Purcell's widow in Orpheus Britannicus, and the complete work remained in manuscript until 1840, when it was printed by the Musical Antiquarian Society, under the editorship of Sir George Macfarren.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Henry Purcell ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Henry Purcell; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay