SKU: ST.PC5
Composed by Various.
Edited by Alan Howard.
Library Volumes. Purcell
Society Companion Series
Vol 5.. Edited by Alan
Howard. Hardback. Score.
Stainer & Bell Ltd. #PC5.
Published by Stainer &
Bell Ltd. (ST.PC5).
ISBN
9790220223440.
An
extraordinary
acknowledgement of the
esteem with which the
composer was regarded in
his lifetime, the three
surviving odes on the
death of Henry Purcell
are also in themselves
among the finest works by
his English
contemporaries. John
Blow's extended elegy
'Mark how the lark and
linnet sing', which sets
a poem by Dryden,
modestly scored for two
voices, two recorders and
continuo, is a
masterpiece displaying
both the contrapuntal
skill which Blow had
taught Purcell and the
florid declamatory style
which Purcell had brought
to perfection in such
numbers as ''Tis Nature's
voice' in Hail!
bright Cecilia.
Henry Hall's 'Yes my
Aminta', laid out for
similar forces, is an
eloquent and finely
crafted pastoral dialogue
in the pathetic style,
with words probably
written by the composer
himself. Grandest in
conception is 'Come, come
along for a dance and a
song', by Jeremiah
Clarke. Setting a
conventional pastoral
elegy penned by an
unknown hand, it marshals
three solo voices, chorus
and full baroque
orchestra in a sequence
of contrasting movements
- including both the song
and the dance to which
the title refers - which
together form a lament at
once arresting and
poignant. The three works
have not hitherto been
presented together, and
the Clarke appears for
the first time in a
modern critical edition -
together with Godfrey
Finger's hitherto
unpublished 'Farewell'
Suite in G minor,
probably from his own
lost ode on Purcell's
death.
