Henry Purcell

Purcell was English…….

As I was saying, Purcell was English. In England, they didn’t call what they were writing “opera”. They called it a “masque”. Same thing, except…..

The spoken word was more important than the music…..

Purcell was considered the best English composer since William Byrd. We don’t really know how Byrd would have felt about this, because he was dead. He died shortly before Purcell was born.

Purcell paid close attention to what was going on in: France and Italy

He wasn’t influenced much by: The music of Moldova

Or Poland

Anyway, Purcell wanted to be sure that he wrote music that would make England known for great dramatic music.

The truth is, Purcell wrote much of his music while sitting in a pub, even at a very young age. Purcell is pictured, second on the left.

A lot of Purcell’s music has hidden meanings

Purcell worked in many courts in England. Ok, not that kind of court….

The kind of courts that Kings were in…..

Much of his theater works were written to please the king of England. No expense was spared. In fact, much of what they did with regard to scenery and costumes would not be affordable today.

He also took on the job of “keeper, mender, repairer, and tuner of the regalls, organs, flutes, recorders of all instruments”. He probably got sick of all of that, and shortened it to “keeper of the King’s instruments” Or, maybe he was just known as “Hank, the mender”

The most important part of his job was maintaining the organ in Westminster Abbey.

One night, Purcell came home late from the pub. His wife was rather angry… So she locked him out of the house.

Unfortunately, he caught pneumonia and died. Fortunately, he wrote Dido and Aeneas before he died, or else we might not have anything to listen to today.

Like I said before, he was in charge of the organ in Westminster Abbey, first….. Above it, as it’s tuner. On it, as it’s player

And under it, where he is now buried

Dido and Aeneas was first performed at a school.

It only takes an hour to perform.

Aeneas loves Dido, but he must continue on his journey to Italy, where he will become ruler of Rome.

They are both very sad about this

Dido’s lament, which is written entirely over a ground bass…….is one of the most famous.