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.
With Celebrate this Festival we come to the fifth of
six Odes Purcell wrote to celebrate the birthday of
Queen Mary in successive years from 1689. By 1693 the
scoring of the orchestra had been increased to include
oboes, recorders and a trumpet and, although the basic
plan remained the same, the size and scale of the Odes
and their dramatic content had increased. The choruses,
often developing out of a series of solo sections, had
increased in length and, in the interests of keeping
pace with the libretto, instrumental ritornelli had all
but vanished, with sections running instead straight
into a contrasting vocal movement. Purcell worked
closely with the famous trumpeter John Shore, and
possible now were movements with virtuoso obbligato
trumpet parts, of which the suitably military ‘While,
for a righteous cause’ is a splendid example.
Similarly, the presence of both oboes and recorders in
the orchestra (oboists usually doubled on recorders)
enabled delicately scored movements such as ‘Return,
fond Muse’ (scored for two recorders and viola). The
Symphony, much grander in scale than those of ten years
before, was on this occasion copied directly from Hail!
bright Cecilia, performed just six months previously,
and Purcell was obviously blessed with two fine
sopranos, whose opening duet sets a suitably stately
tone for the Ode. But there is also writing of great
beauty too, in particular the quietly ecstatic setting
for solo alto, over a ground bass, of ‘Crown the
altar’. Effective, too, is the wonderful seven-part
vocal texture at ‘Repeat Maria’s name’ which
throws the Queen’s name between voices and
instruments before a minuet closes the work in elegant
vein.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell).
Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Basso
Continuo, I created this interpretation of "Britain
now, thy cares beguile" from "Celebrate this festival -
a Birthday Ode for Queen Mary" (Z.321 No. 3) for Winds
(Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
