France, England, Spain, and the New World in the Seventeenth Century
Composer Biographies
Henry Purcell
Born: 1659
Died: November 21, 1695, Westminster
Return to Just Listen: Era : Composer
In his own words....
"Poetry and painting have arrived to their perfection in our own country; music is yet but in its nonage [immaturity], a forward Child, which gives hope of what it may be hereafter in England, when the masters of it shall find more Encouragement."
English Composer. Most important English composer of the early Baroque.
Henry Purcell spent his entire career in various capacities as a musician in the English royal court. He began as a singer in the Chapel Royal as a boy. When his voice broke in 1673 he was named an assistant to John Hingeston, the keeper of the king's instruments. Ten years later he succeeded Hingeston in the position. In 1677, he was appointed a composer to the king. A series of other court appointments finally led to his taking the position of organist at Westminster Abbey in 1679, and in 1682 he was appointed organist to the Chapel Royal.
Purcell is probably best known for his dramatic works, including songs and instrumental music for some forty plays. His one true opera (short as it is), was Dido and Aeneas, written for a girls' school in Chelsea. A larger work, The Fairy Queen , based loosely on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , was a royal entertainment with music. It, along with a number of his other works, is often described as a semi-opera. His most famous choral work is his Ode to St. Cecelia, but he also wrote more than fifty anthems and numerous other sacred pieces and songs. In these works, his response to the text can be quite moving and his settings of sorrowful texts often contain surprisingly harsh dissonances. Purcell's instrumental music, especially his fantasies, shows his mastery of contrapuntal technique.
Works
- Dramatic music, including Dido and Aeneas (1689) and The Fairy Queen (1692); incidental music for plays
- Sacred vocal music, including a Magnificat, Te Deum, and anthems
- Secular vocal music, including court odes
- Instrumental music, including fantasias, sonatas, marches, overtures, and harpsichord suites and dances
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Musical Examples
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Links
- A Basic Biography
From the Classical Music Pages. Biographical article extracted from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music.
- The Glory of the Temple and the Stage
An on-line version of an exhibit put on by the British Library to honor the 300th anniversary of Henry Purcell's death. Includes images of manuscripts written by Purcell, with audio examples.
- Works and Recommended Recordings
A list of works and recommended recordings from the Classical Net site with links to selected sites.