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Henry Purcell, b. London, c.1659, d. Nov.
21, 1695, was the most eminent British composer of his time.
He studied with his father and later with Henry Cooke, Pelham
Humfrey, and possibly Matthew Locke, whom he succeeded in
1677 as composer for the royal string band. Two years later
he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey, and from 1682
onward he served as one of the organists of the Chapel Royal.
Although his forebears and some of his descendants were musicians,
the talents of this remarkable family seem to have concentrated
themselves in Henry, who despite a creative career of less
than 20 years wrote music of the highest quality and originality
for virtually every known genre.
Purcell's music for the church includes organ voluntaries,
services, and motets, but his greatest contributions were
his numerous anthems, either full (for choir and occasional
solos) or verse (in which texture for small vocal ensembles
tends to predominate). Many of the verse anthems call for
a string orchestra in addition to ample vocal resources, for
Purcell frequently had to provide music for important state
occasions such as a coronation or a royal wedding. Religious
music for the home displays yet another aspect of his art,
in which he made excellent and expressive use of poems by
George Herbert, Francis Quarles, Nahum Tate, Abraham Cowley,
and Bishop Thomas Fuller, whose "Morning Hymn" and
"Evening Hymn" were given outstanding settings by
Purcell.
The secular works are wide-ranging: more than 100 solo songs
(some with chorus), compositions for small ensembles (including
a choice collection of delightfully ribald catches), and--on
a grander scale--occasional pieces written for the arrival,
birthday, or marriage of royal or noble personages and for
the perennial celebrations on Saint Cecilia's Day. This last-mentioned
genre usually inspired Purcell to write descriptive and colorful
scores whose glorification of the patron saint of music is
impressive and moving. The finest of these is Hail! Bright
Cecilia, written in 1692.
Purcell's chamber music is also richly varied. Although most
of his string fantasias excel in contrapuntal and harmonic
invention, the two sets of trio sonatas balance lyricism and
polyphony to perfection, whereas the solos and suites for
harpsichord prove the composer's considerable competence as
a keyboard player.
His operas, masques, and semioperas (in which speech alternates
with music) demonstrate his instinctive feeling for drama,
and even though he was to some extent hampered by theatrical
conventions of the time, he often managed to triumph over
their limitations and produce works of lasting beauty and
persuasion, such as Dido and Aeneas (1689) and The Fairy Queen
(1692).
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