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Henry Purcell: Chapel Royal
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Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was one of the most important early English Opera composers and a master organist at the Chapel Royal. His style was distinctly English, though it ... contained other influences such as the sweeping, grand overtures of France and the beautiful aria melodies of Italy. Much of Purcell's music was meant to accompany theater, diverting the audience's attention between scenes and punctuating important happenings in the drama. In his early Opera Dido and Aeneas, the slightest dissonant turn in the melody often reflected crucial happenings in the verse. In addition to his important vocal work, Purcell also wrote instrumental music, lively dances and pieces for the church.
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Henry Purcell was one of the greatest English composers, flourishing in the period that followed the Restoration of the monarchy after the Puritan Commonwealth period. Purcell spent much of his short life in the service of the Chapel Royal as a composer, organist and singer. With considerable gifts as a composer, he wrote extensively for the stage, particularly in a hybrid musico-dramatic form of the time, for the church and for popular entertainment, a master of English word-setting and of contemporary compositional techniques for instruments and voices. He died in 1695, a year after composing funeral music for Queen Mary.
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One of four sons, Henry Purcell revealed his musical skills at a very early age and joined the Chapel Royal in London as a boy chorister. Choristers were encouraged to develop their talents, and the eight- year-old Purcell duly obliged by composing a three-part song, 'Sweet Tyranness', which became a part of leading publisher Playford's 'Can That Catch Can'.
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Called the greatest English composer of the 17th century, Henry Purcell was born in London in 1659 to a musical family. His father was a court musician. Also a pupil of composer John Blow (1649-1708), Henry spent his childhood immersed in musical activity. Later an organist at the Chapel Royal, he was first a choirboy. Becoming the composer to the king’s string orchestra at age 18, Purcell was hired two years after that as organist of Westminster Abbey. Assuming the title "keeper of the royal instruments," his job description included tuning the organ.
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After his father's death in 1664, young Henry Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Thomas Purcell (d. 1682), who showed him great affection and kindness. Thomas was himself a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel, and arranged for Henry to be admitted as a chorister. Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke (d. 1672), master of the children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey (d. 1674), Cooke's successor.
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Purcell is one of the greatest of all English composers and an outstanding figure of the Baroque period. He first became involved with the theater in 1680, most of his dramatic music consisting of overtures, entr'actes, dances, and songs; five works constitute what have been designated "semi-operas," with more substantial amounts of music. Dido and Aeneas is exceptional in that the libretto is set to music throughout; it was written for a boarding school -- Josias Priest's "School for Young Gentlewomen" -- at Chelsea in 1689. Purcell's first court odes and welcome songs ... date from 1680, and continue throughout his career; best described as cantatas for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, they represent some of his finest music. As a chorister he was acquainted with the previous generation of church music, as well as the modem anthem style with extensive solo verses and string accompaniment; he probably was writing anthems for the Chapel Royal as early as 1679, and after his 1682 appointment abandoned the full anthem in favor of the verse form. Purcell's secular vocal output is immense and includes, in addition to the nearly 150 songs from dramatic works, an additional 100 works (many published in contemporary songbooks) as well as numerous duets and catches.
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