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Henry Purcell: Music
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The death of Henry Purcell in November 1695, aged 36, was one of the great losses in musical history. He was one of England's most original and brilliant composers, and his equal would never come again. Of Purcell the man very little is known. His personality has to be reconstructed through the age in which in which he lived, the circumstances of his professional life, the men and women who knew him, and above all through his music. It is here that Robert King has a unique advantage. As one of Britain's leading baroque conductors and director of The King's Consort, he has a long experience in performing Purcell.
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Henry Purcell (IPA: /ˈpɜrsəl/; September 10, 1659 (?),, – November 21, 1695, was an English Baroque composer. He has often been called England's finest native composer. Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements but devised a peculiarly English style of Baroque music.
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Henry Purcell began a new era in music. During the English history Restoration period, a very important time in English history, he did more then any other composer for music of the church, the theater, the concert room, and the chamber.
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Henry Purcell’s Baroque period style exploits English folksong melodies and strives for variety in choruses. In vocal music he ... used lively rhythms, dissonance for aural interest, and the ground bass technique. With repeating patterns and the same themes stated in the bass line, changing melodies sound above the other voice parts. All of music’s western world successes Purcell brought to England with the various aspects of his individual Baroque style: the use of major/minor tonalities, French active rhythms, and Italian opera’s recitative and aria, or the speaking and lyrical opera styles.
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Henry Purcell (10th September 1659–21st November 1695), a Baroque composer, is generally considered to be one of England's greatest composers — indeed, he has often been called England's finest native composer. Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements but devised a peculiarly English style of Baroque music.
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Purcell was a master of the English song, already well represented by earlier composers such as John Dowland and Henry Lawes. Many of his best-known songs are taken from his theater music, which included more than forty plays as well as the semi-operas. He wrote three Odes for St. Cecilia's Day (for soloists, chorus, and orchestra), and his grand Te Deum and Jubilate of 1694 was ... in honor of Cecilia, the patron saint of music. He was in great demand as a teacher, and composed much domestic music. His chamber music embraces fantasies for viols, among the last of a genre highly esteemed and cultivated in English domestic circles, but also Italianate sonatas for the newly fashionable violin with harpsichord accompaniment. For drinking clubs he contributed glees (unaccompanied part songs) and catches (rounds), some with bawdy words, others reflecting the turbulent politics of the time.
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