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’s ‘Complete Service’ in B flat, a setting
of ten canticles, though not unique, is a comparative
rarity for its time. Alongside a Magnificat and Nunc
Dimittis (and their alternatives, the Cantate Domino
and Deus misereatur) for performance at Evensong,
Purcell wrote a Te Deum, Benedictus, Benedicite and
Jubilate for Morning Service and Kyrie and Nicene Creed
for the Communion service. The setting must have been
extremely useful to cathedral and other choirs for the
service appears, either complete or in part, in
numerous different manuscripts all over Britain and has
been included on service lists almost ever since.
Compared to the anthems, the B flat service settings
appear conservative, the harmony usually remaining
relatively simple and often homophonic. However, they
do contain ingenious canonic and other contrapuntal
devices, and their choruses alternate with sections of
verse which are usually split between three upper and
three lower solo voices. A payment of thirty shillings
is registered in the accounts of Westminster Abbey for
Michaelmas 1681 ‘for writing Mr Purcell’s service
and anthem’.
The Te Deum and Jubilate are of course very different
to the more famous 1694 settings in D major (recorded
on Disc 2), for the B flat service was not written for
a grand public celebration of St Cecilia’s Day. But
the earlier setting is nonetheless beautifully crafted,
alternating sections of chorus and verse and adding
further variety in the choral sections with antiphonal
effects between the two ‘sides’ of the choir,
decani and cantoris. Purcell also skilfully colours his
text by the allocation of his forces: in the Te Deum
the lower solo trio sing ‘To thee all angels cry
aloud’, the three upper voices (two trebles and a
tenor) depict the ‘Cherubin and Seraphim’ (two of
the highest of the nine orders of angels, associated
respectively with knowledge and love) and the full
choir take on the role of the Heavenly Host and their
continual cries of ‘Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth’.
Purcell relaxes the mood for the more reflective
central section of the Te Deum ‘When thou took’st
upon thee’ and the chorus that follows, especially
the setting of ‘We therefore pray thee’ is
particularly effective. At ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’ (for
which in the 1694 setting Purcell produced one of his
very greatest movements) Purcell changes the
soloists’ distribution, adding a second bass and
creating the only moment when treble and bass soloists
sing together. The result is especially touching. The
Jubilate has a text considerably shorter than the Te
Deum and Purcell’s aim is, again, to get through the
text speedily. At ‘O go your way into his gates’ he
skilfully incorporates a double canon in contrary
motion — ‘per arsin et thesin’: the trebles
exactly copy the tenor line but in inversion, and the
altos do the same with the separate line first heard in
the basses. There is one short section of verse, ‘For
the Lord is gracious’, which is heard before the
concluding Gloria.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell).
Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Basso
Continuo, I created this interpretation of the
Magnificat & Nunc dimittis from Te Deum in Bb Major
(Z.230 Nos. 7 & 8) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn
& Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).