Henry
Purcell ;September
10 ,
1659–November 21,
1695), a Baroque composer, is
generally considered to be one of England's greatest composers. 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.
Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street,
Westminster.
His father, Henry Purcell,[3] was a gentleman of the Chapel
Royal, and sang at the coronation of King Charles II of England. Henry the elder had
three sons, Edward, Henry, and Daniel. Daniel
Purcell (d. 1717),
the youngest of the brothers, was also a prolific composer who wrote the music
for much of the final act of The
Indian Queen after Purcell's death.
After his father's death in 1664, 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.
Purcell is said to have been composing at nine
years old; but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an
ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670. (The dates for his compositions
are often uncertain, despite considerable research). After Humfrey's death,
Purcell continued his studies under Dr John Blow.
He attended Westminster School and in 1676 he was appointed organist,
at Westminster Abbey and in the same year he
composed the music to John Dryden's Aureng-Zebe, and Thomas
Shadwell's Epsom Wells and The Libertine. These were followed
in 1677 by the music to Aphra Behn's tragedy, Abdelazar, and in
1678 by an overture and masque for Shadwell's new version of Shakespeare's Timon
of Athens. The chorus "In these delightful pleasant groves"
from The Libertine is still performed.
In 1679, he wrote some songs for John
Playford's Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues, and also an anthem, the name of
which is not known, for the Chapel Royal. From a letter written by Thomas
Purcell, and still extant, we learn that this anthem was composed for the
exceptionally fine voice of the Rev. John
Gostling, then at Canterbury, but afterwards a gentleman of His Majesty's
chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for this extraordinary
voice, a basso profondo, which is known to have had a range
of at least two full octaves, from D below the bass staff to the D above it. The
dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known; perhaps the most
notable example is the anthem "They that go down to the sea in
ships". In thankfulness for a providential escape of the King from
shipwreck, Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses
from the Psalms in the form of an anthem, and requested Purcell to set them to
music. The work is a very difficult one, including a passage which traverses
the full extent of Gostling's voice, beginning on the upper D and descending
two octaves to the lower.
Another portrait of
Henry Purcell
In 1680, Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster
Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil, who was still
only twenty-two. Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition
of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theatre.
However, during the early part of the year, probably before taking up his new
office, he had produced two important works for the stage, the music for Nathaniel
Lee's Theodosius and Thomas
D'Urfey's Virtuous Wife. The composition of his opera Dido
and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of
English dramatic music, has been attributed to this period, though its earliest
production has been shown by W. Barclay Squire
to have been between 1688 and 1690. It was written to a libretto furnished
by Nahum
Tate, at the request of Josiah Priest, a professor of dancing, who also kept
a boarding-school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester
Fields and afterwards at Chelsea,
where it is thought the opera was first performed. It is occasionally
considered the first genuine English
opera, though that title is usually given to Blow's Venus and Adonis: as in Blow's work, the
action does not progress in spoken dialogue but in Italian-style recitative.
Dido and Aeneas never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to
have been very popular among private circles. It is believed to have been
extensively copied, but only one song was printed by Purcell's widow in Orpheus
Britannicus, and the complete work remained in manuscript until 1840, when
it was printed by the Musical
Antiquarian Society, under the editorship of Sir George Macfarren.
Soon after Purcell's marriage, in 1682, on the
death of Edward Lowe, he was appointed organist of the Chapel-Royal, an office
which he was able to hold simultaneously with his position at Westminster
Abbey. His eldest son was born in this same year. His first printed
composition, Twelve Sonatas, was published in 1683. For some years
after this he was busy in the production of sacred music, odes addressed to the
king and royal family, and other similar works. In 1685 he wrote two of his
finest anthems, "I was glad" and "My heart is inditing",
for the coronation of King James II.
In 1687, he resumed his connection with the
theatre by furnishing the music for Dryden's
tragedy, Tyrannick Love. In this year Purcell also
composed a march and quick-step, which became so popular that Lord Wharton
adapted the latter to the fatal verses of Lillibullero;
and in or before January 1688 he composed his anthem "Blessed are they
that fear the Lord", by express command of the King. A few months later he
wrote the music for D'Urfey's play, The Fool's Preferment. In 1690 he wrote the songs
for Dryden's version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, including "Full fathom
five" and "Come unto these yellow sands", and the music for Betterton's
adaptation of Fletcher and Massinger's Prophetess
(afterwards called Dioclesian) and Dryden's Amphitryon.
In 1691 he produced
what is sometimes considered his dramatic masterpiece, King Arthur, also written by Dryden, and
first published by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1843. In 1692, he
composed songs and music for The
Fairy-Queen (an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), the score
of which was rediscovered in 1901 and published by the Purcell
Society. However, in these semi-operas (the term for which at the time was
"dramatic operas") the main characters of the plays do not sing but
speak their lines: the action moves in dialogue rather than recitative, with
music introduced only in isolated scenes and masques. In these works Purcell
suffered the handicap of being unable to characterize through music, largely
due to the aesthetics of mass audiences of that time.[5]
Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate
was written for Saint Cecilia's Day, 1693, the first English Te Deum
ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. This work was annually performed
at St Paul's Cathedral until 1712, after which it
was performed alternately with Handel's Utrecht Te
Deum and Jubilate until 1743, when both works were replaced by
Handel's Dettingen Te Deum.
He composed an anthem and two elegies for Queen Mary II's funeral. Besides the operas and semi-operas
already mentioned, Purcell wrote Don Quixote,
Boudicca,
The Indian Queen and others, a vast quantity
of sacred music, and numerous odes, cantatas and other miscellaneous pieces. The quantity of his
instrumental chamber music is minimal after his early career, and his keyboard
music consists of an even more minimal number of harpsichord suites and organ
pieces.
He died at his house in Dean's Yard, Westminster,
in 1695, at the height of his career; he was in his mid-thirties. His wife and
three of his six children survived him. His widow died in 1706, having published
a number of his works, including the now famous collection called Orpheus
Britannicus, in two volumes, printed in 1698 and 1702 respectively.
The cause of Purcell's death is unclear: one theory
is that he caught a chill after returning late from the theatre one night to
find that his wife had locked him out; another is that he succumbed to
chocolate poisoning; perhaps the most likely is that he died of tuberculosis.
The beginning of Purcell's will reads:
In the name of God Amen. I, Henry Purcell, of the City of Westminster,
gentleman, being dangerously ill as to the constitution of my body, but in good
and perfect mind and memory (thanks be to God) do by these presents publish and
declare this to be my last Will and Testament. And I do hereby give and
bequeath unto my loving wife, Frances Purcell, all my estate both real and
personal of what nature and kind soever...
Purcell is buried adjacent to the organ in
Westminster Abbey. His epitaph reads, "Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who
left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be
exceeded".
A Purcell Club was
founded in London in 1836 for promoting the performance of his music, but was
dissolved in 1863. In 1876 a Purcell
Society was founded, which published new editions of his works. A modern
day Purcell Club has
been created, and provides guided tours and concerts in support of Westminster
Abbey.
After his death, Purcell was honored by many of
his contemporaries, including his old friend John Blow,
who wrote "An Ode, on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (Mark how the lark and
linnet sing)" with text by his old collaborator John Dryden. More
recently, the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a famous sonnet
entitled simply "Henry Purcell", with a head-note reading: "The
poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell and praises him that, whereas
other musicians have given utterance to the moods of man's mind, he has, beyond
that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man as created both in him
and in all men generally."
Purcell is among the Baroque composers who has had
a direct influence on modern rock and roll; according to Pete
Townshend of The
Who, Purcell was among his influences, particularly evident in the opening
bars of The Who's "Pinball Wizard." The title song from the sound
track of the film A Clockwork Orange is from Purcell's
"Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary."
Purcell also had a strong influence on the
composers of the English musical renaissance of the early twentieth century,
most notably Benjamin Britten, who created and performed a
realisation of Dido and Aeneas and whose Young Person's Guide to the
Orchestra is based on a theme from Purcell's Abdelazar.
Stylistically, the aria "I know a bank" from Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream is
clearly inspired by Purcell's aria "Sweeter than Roses", which he
wrote as part of incidental music to Richard Norton's
Pausanias,
the Betrayer of His Country.
