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Vidéo :
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| Composer : | Purcell, Henry (1659 - 1695) | ||
| Instrumentation : | Winds & String Orchestra | ||
| Style : | Baroque | ||
| Arranger : Publisher : | MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL (1960 - ) | ||
| Copyright : | Public Domain | ||
| Added by magataganm, 19 Feb 2023 As England's greatest composer of the Baroque, Henry Purcell was dubbed the "Orpheus Britannicus" for his ability to combine pungent English counterpoint with expressive, flexible, and dramatic word settings. While he did write instrumental music, including the important viol fantasias, the vast majority of his output was in the vocal/choral realm. His only opera, Dido and Aeneas, divulged his sheer mastery in the handling of the work's vast expressive canvas, which included lively dance numbers, passionate arias and rollicking choruses. Purcell also wrote much incidental music for stage productions, including that for Dryden's King Arthur. His church music includes many anthems, devotional songs, and other sacred works, but few items for Anglican services. Purcell was born in 1659 to Henry Purcell, master of choristers at Westminster Abbey, and his wife Elizabeth. When he was five, his father died, forcing his mother to resettle the family of six children into a more modest house and lifestyle. In about 1668, Purcell became a chorister in the Chapel Royal, studying under chorus master Henry Cooke. He also took keyboard lessons from Christopher Gibbons, son of the composer Orlando Gibbons, and it is likely that he studied with John Blow and Matthew Locke. In 1673, Purcell was appointed assistant to John Hingeston, the royal instrument keeper. On September 10, 1677, Purcell was given the Court position of composer-in-ordinary for the violins. It is believed that many of his church works date from this time. Purcell, a great keyboard virtuoso by his late teens, received a second important post in 1679, this one succeeding Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey, a position he would retain all his life. That same year saw the publication of five of the young composer's songs in John Playford's Choice Ayres and Songs to Sing to the Theorbo-lute or Bass-viol. Around the same time, he began writing anthems with string accompaniment, completing over a dozen before 1685, and welcome songs. Purcell was appointed one of three organists at the Chapel Royal in the summer of 1682, his most prestigious post yet. The Anthem, in the post-Reformation church music of England was initially the term given to a choral work with an English biblical text. By the end of the 17th century it begins to take on Italian stylistic elements and becomes a cantata for solo voices, choir and orchestra. The anthem "O sing unto the Lord" presented here, based on words of the 96th Psalm, is a particularly beautiful example of the transformation of the traditional and the modern style into a unified whole. It is a relatively late work, noted in the Gostling Manuscript as ‘Written by Mr Purcell in 1688’. It shows Purcell at his most Italianate, with vigorous antiphony between voices and instruments, and also between a prominent solo bass and the chorus. This seems to have been a verse anthem written for a special occasion when the large string orchestra was available, with the block chords that open the work especially suited to a fuller orchestral texture. Before the imitative section that almost always makes up the second half of the Symphony in the anthems Purcell unusually adds a wonderfully expressive section (frequently marked ‘Drag’ in manuscripts), full of chromaticism and diminished harmonies. Although the writing is overtly celebratory, behind it is the deliciously wistful quality which is a feature of so much of Purcell’s music. After the strings’ Symphony a solo bass ceremoniously opens the proceedings, followed by two lilting choral Alleluias, before we are treated to the first of a series of imaginative instrumental ritornelli. The four-part verse ‘Sing unto the Lord, and praise his name’ leads straight into the mysteriously-coloured ‘Declare his honour’, which blossoms into a full chorus. Ground basses are surprisingly thinly spread in the church music (compared at least to the odes and welcome songs) but the duet for treble and alto ‘The Lord is great’ is a fine example, capped by another marvellously inventive string ritornello. The central section of the anthem is the quartet ‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’, as magical a piece of writing as Purcell ever produced. After such awestruck writing the antiphony of solo bass with choir and strings returns at ‘Tell it out among the heathen’, leading into a final section of Alleluias. Typically, Purcell treats these Alleluias gently, and the anthem ends serenely. Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell). Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Basso Continuo, I created this interpretation of "O sing unto the Lord" (Z.44) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello). | |||
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