Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) was an English composer.
His style of Baroque music was uniquely English,
although it incorporated Italian and French elements.
Generally considered among the greatest English opera
composers, Purcell is often linked with John Dunstaple
and William Byrd as England's most important early
music composers. No later native-born English composer
approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, Gustav Holst, William Walton and Benjamin
Britten in the 20th c...(+)
Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) was an English composer.
His style of Baroque music was uniquely English,
although it incorporated Italian and French elements.
Generally considered among the greatest English opera
composers, Purcell is often linked with John Dunstaple
and William Byrd as England's most important early
music composers. No later native-born English composer
approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, Gustav Holst, William Walton and Benjamin
Britten in the 20th century..
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.
In 1689 Purcell was commissioned to write works by two
London schools. The more famous of these commissions
resulted in Dido and Aeneas, first performed at Josias
Priest’s School for Young Ladies in Chelsea, but at
around the same time (perhaps keeping up with his
competitors) the schoolteacher Mr Maidwell commissioned
the music to the Ode Celestial music did the gods
inspire, which was performed at his school on 5 August.
The librettist is unknown, simply credited in the score
with ‘the words by one of his scholars’, but
certainly appears to have had a firm grounding in Greek
and Roman mythology—and produced verse that was
better than some written by more distinguished names of
the time.
Purcell took the Symphony for the Ode directly from his
1685 coronation anthem My heart is inditing: such
re-use of material was comparatively rare with Purcell
and suggests that there may have been some haste in the
composition. The solo bass at ‘Celestial music’ is
accompanied by imitative strings who lead into a chorus
which blossoms wonderfully at ‘Whom sacred music
calls her Deity’. ‘Her charming strains’ is
evocatively scored over a four-bar ground bass for the
other-worldly combination of countertenor and two
recorders and the instruments are provided with an
elegant playout. ‘Thus Virgil’s Genius’ is also
set on a ground and is given to a soprano soloist,
followed by the duet ‘Whilst music did improve
Amphion’s song’ and a string ritornello, both based
on the rhythmic motif of a Scotch snap. ‘When Orpheus
sang’ is a miniature masterpiece in which, once
again, the theme of music inspires Purcell to produce a
movement of startling originality: the countertenor
weaves a florid line over a hypnotic chordal
accompaniment illustrating Orpheus and his lyre
subduing nature and even cruel Pluto. Closing the work
is a trio (with suitably rich harmony for the word
‘ravish’d’) which is then taken up by the chorus
and enlarged with virtuoso breaks for the first
violin.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell).
Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Basso
Continuo, I created this interpretation of the "Let
Phillis by her voice but charm the air" from "Celestial
music did the gods inspire" (Z.322 No. 8) for Winds
(Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
