Henry Purcell (1659-1695); ENG

Purcell, Henry (b London, 1659; d London, 1695). Eng. composer and organist. Son of Thomas Purcell, one of the King's musicians. Boy chorister of Chapel Royal. Studied with Humfrey and Blow. In 1674 he was appointed tuner of Westminster Abbey org. and at 18, in 1677, he succeeded Matthew Locke as ‘composer to the King's violins’ (a str. band of 24 players). He succeeded Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey in 1679. In the following year he pubd. the superb Fantasias for strs., written for his private enjoyment and not for the royal band. From 1680 Purcell began to compose the long series of ‘welcome odes’ and other official choral pieces, his music by far transcending the doggerel of the words. In that year, too, he comp. the first of the incidental mus. he wrote for the London th., for plays by Dryden, Congreve, Shadwell, Brady, Behn, etc. In 1682 he became one of the 3 organists of the Chapel Royal and in 1683 pubd. his sonatas in 3 parts (2 vn., and bass, with organ or hpd.), in the preface to which he admitted that he had attempted a ‘just imitation of the most fam'd Italian masters’. In 1685 his anthem My Heart is Inditing was comp. for the coronation of James II and 4 years later he was involved in the coronation of William III and Mary II. In 1689 his only opera, Dido and Aeneas, was perf. at Josias Priest's boarding-school for girls at Chelsea, but recent research has convincingly suggested that this may have been a revival and that the opera was comp. at least 5 years earlier, probably 1684. In the last few years of his life, Purcell was increasingly prolific, composing some of his greatest church mus. such as the Te Deum and Jubilate in D. In 1695, for Queen Mary's funeral, he comp. an anthem (Thou knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts), 4 canzonas for brass, and 2 elegies, which are among his most masterly works and were used for his own funeral later the same year.

Purcell's position as among the greatest of Eng. composers was acknowledged in his lifetime, but it was not until the bicentenary of his death that this judgment came to be accepted by later generations. The work of the Purcell Soc. and of composers such as Holst and Vaughan Williams helped to rehabilitate him, and Benjamin Britten of a later generation paid him the compliment of imitation and also restored many of his works to the concert-hall, aided by the 20th-cent. revival of interest in perf. the mus. of Purcell's time in authentic style. Purcell's brilliance of invention, his sense of drama, and the ‘common touch’ which endeared him to his contemporaries (both musicians and non-musicians) give his mus. freshness and immediacy. In Dido and Aeneas, he comp. the first great Eng. opera and set a new standard of sensitivity to words and word-rhythms in addition to displaying rare depths of emotion. Yet it is in the instrumental works that the real genius of Henry Purcell dwells. Prin. works:

OPERA: Dido and Aeneas (?1684).

SEMI-OPERAS: The Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian (1690); King Arthur, or The British Worthy (1691); The Fairy Queen (1692); The Indian Queen (1695); The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island (?1695. See Weldon, John).

INCIDENTAL MUSIC: Theodosius, or The Force of Love (1680); Amphitryon (1690); Distressed Innocence (1690); The Indian Emperor (1691); The Libertine (?1692); The Double Dealer (1693); Timon of Athens (1694); The Comical History of Don Quixote (1694-5); The Married Beau (1694); Abdelazer (1695); The Mock Marriage (1695); Bonduca, or The British Heroine (1695); The Spanish Friar (1694-5). (See also Songs from Theatre Music, below.)

CHORAL: Behold, I Bring you Good Tidings, Christmas anthem (1687); Come ye Sons of Art, ode for Queen Mary's birthday (1694); Elegy on the death of Queen Mary (1695); Jehovah, quam multi, motet; Jubilate Deo in D (1694); Let God arise (1679); Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G minor; My Beloved Spake (c.1680); My Heart is Inditing, anthem (1685); Now Does the Glorious Day Appear, ode for Queen Mary's birthday (1689); O God, thou art my God, anthem (1682); O God, thou has cast us out, anthem (1682); O Lord God of hosts, anthem (1682); O Sing unto the Lord (1688); Ode for St Cecilia's Day (1683-92); Rejoice in the Lord Alway, the Bell anthem (1684-5); Remember not, Lord, our offences, anthem (1682); Te Deum in D (1694); They that go Down to the Sea in Ships, anthem (1685); Thou knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts, anthem (Queen Mary's Funeral Music, 1695); Thy Word is a Lantern, anthem (c.1694).

SONGS FROM THEATRE MUSIC: Cinthia frowns whene'er I woo her (Distressed Innocence, 1690); O Let me Weep; Turn then thine Eyes (The Fairy Queen, 1692); I Sighed and owned my Love (The Fatal Marriage, 1694); I Attempt from Love's Sickness to Fly (The Indian Queen, 1695); Fairest Isle, all Isles Excelling; Shepherd, Leave Decoying (King Arthur, 1691); Nymphs and Shepherds (The Libertine, ?1692); No, Resistance is but Vain (The Maid's Last Prayer, 1693); Man is for the Woman Made (The Mock Marriage, 1695); Music for a while (Oedipus, 1692); My Dearest, my Fairest; Sweeter than Roses (Pausania, 1695); Arise ye Subterranean Winds; Halcyon Days; See, see, the Heavens Smile (The Tempest, ?1695).

SONGS: Ah Cruel Nymph; Bess of Bedlam; Fly Swift, ye Hours; The Father brave; I Lov'd fair Celia (1694); I Vowed to Die a Maid; If Music be the food of Love (3 versions 1692, 1693, 1695); Lord, What is Man? (1693); Love Arms himself in Celia's Eyes (1695); Love, thou art Best; Lovely Albina (1695); Morning Hymn; Now that the Sun hath Veiled his Light (Evening Hymn, 1688); Queen's Epicedium; Sleep, Adam, sleep (1683); Tell me some Pitying Angel (The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation, 1693); What a Sad Fate is Mine; When Night her Purple Veil.

INSTRUMENTAL: Strings, without continuo: Chacony in G minor, 4 parts; 3 Fantasias, 3 parts (1680); 9 Fantasias, 4 parts (1680); Fantasia upon 1 note, 5 parts; In Nomine, 6 parts; In Nomine, 7 parts; Pavan in G minor, 4 parts. Strings, with continuo: Fantasia on a ground in D, 4 parts; Overtures in G, 4 parts; in D minor, 4 parts; in G minor, 5 parts; 12 Sonatas of 3 parts (1683); 10 Sonatas of 4 parts (pubd. 1697); Sonata in G minor; Suite in G major; Sonata in D for tpt., strs., continuo; Symphoniae sacrae, viol and organ; Trumpet Tune and Air. Brass: March and Canzona for 4 tbs. (Queen Mary's Funeral Music, 1695).

KEYBOARD: suites for hpd. (pubd. 1696): No.1 in G, No.2 in G minor, No.3 in G, No.4 in A minor, No.5 in C, No.6 in D, No.7 in D minor, No.8 in F; Musick's Handmaid (1689) in 2 parts (No.9 of part 2 is New Irish tune in G, Lilliburlero); Air in D minor; Fanfare in Bb; Ground in D minor; Hornpipe in E minor; Pavans in A minor and G; Round in D; Toccata in A minor.

ORGAN: Voluntary on the Old 100th; Voluntary in G.

Copyright © 1996 Oxford University Press - By permission of Oxford University Press

Recommended Oxford books

###

Read biography at allmusic.com.