HENRY PURCELL
Born: 1659. England
Died: November 21, 1695. Westminster, England
In his
own words...
"Poetry and painting have arrived to their perfection in our own country; music is yet but in its nonage [immaturity], a forward Child, which gives hope of what it may be hereafter in England, when the masters of it shall find more Encouragement."
English Composer. Most important English composer of the early Baroque.
Henry Purcell spent his entire career in various capacities as a musician in the
English royal court. He began as a singer in the Chapel Royal as a boy. When his
voice broke in 1673 he was named an assistant to John Hingeston, the keeper of
the king's instruments. Ten years later he succeeded Hingeston in the position.
In 1677, he was appointed a composer to the king. A series of other court
appointments finally led to his taking the position of organist at Westminster
Abbey in 1679, and in 1682 he was appointed organist to the Chapel Royal.
Purcell is probably best known for his dramatic works, including songs and
instrumental music for some forty plays. His one true opera (short as it is) was
Dido and Aeneas, written for a girls' school in Chelsea. A larger work,
The Fairy Queen, based loosely on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's
Dream, was a royal entertainment with music. It, along with a number of his
other works, is often described as a semi-opera. His most famous choral work is
his Ode to St. Cecelia, but he also wrote more than fifty anthems and
numerous other sacred pieces and songs. In these works, his response to the text
can be quite moving and his settings of sorrowful texts often contain
surprisingly harsh dissonances. Purcell's instrumental music, especially his
fantasies, shows his mastery of contrapuntal technique.
Works:
Instrumental music, including fantasias, sonatas, marches, overtures, and harpsichord suites and dances