Purcell, Henry 1659-95
English composer

Purcell was born in London, the son of Thomas Purcell, a court musician and Chapel Royal chorister. He was himself one of the 'children of the chapel' from about 1669 to 1673, when, his voice having broken, he was apprenticed to the keeper of the king's keyboard and wind instruments, whom he ultimately succeeded in 1683. In the meantime he had followed Matthew Locke as 'composer for the king's violins' (1677), and had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey (1679) and of the Chapel Royal (1682).

It is known that he began to compose when very young, though some early pieces ascribed to him are probably the work of his uncle Henry, also a professional musician. In about 1680 he began writing incidental music to plays by William Congreve, John Dryden, Aphra Behn, and others for performance at the Duke of York's Theatre, and from this time until his early death his output was prolific. Although his harpsichord pieces and his well-known set of trio-sonatas for violins and continuo have retained their popularity, his greatest masterpieces are among his vocal and choral works.

In his official capacity he produced a number of fine 'welcome odes' in celebration of royal birthdays, St Cecilia's Day, and other occasions, also many anthems and services. In 1685 he wrote an anthem, My Heart is Inditing, for the coronation of James II, and he wrote music for the coronation of William III four years later, as well as funeral music for Queen Mary II in 1694.

He is credited with six operas, but of these only the first, Dido and Aeneas, written to a libretto by Nahum Tate in 1689, is opera in the true sense; it is now regarded as the first great English opera. The others, Dioclesian (1690; adapted from Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher), King Arthur (1691; John Dryden), The Fairy Queen (1692; adapted from A Midsummer Night's Dream), The Tempest (1695; Thomas Shadwell's adaptation) and The Indian Queen (1695; Dryden and Sir Robert Howard), consist essentially of spoken dialogue between the main characters interspersed with masques and other musical items supplied by nymphs, shepherds, and allegorical figures. Many of the incidental songs, such as 'I Attempt from Love's Sickness' (The Indian Queen), are performed as separate pieces.

Purcell was writing at a time when the new Italian influence was first beginning to be felt in England, and his music includes superb examples in both this and the traditional English style, as well as in the French style exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully. John Blow's fine ode on his untimely death, and tributes by other contemporary musicians, show that he was recognized in his own time, as now, as the greatest English composer of the age. His brother Daniel (c.1663-1718) was also a distinguished composer and was for some time organist of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Purcell's fame declined after his death, and did not fully revive until the bicentenary of his death; later English composers, especially Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and above all Benjamin Britten, have done much to rehabilitate him by performance and adaptation of his music.

Bibliography: M Burden, The Purcell Companion (1995); A Hutchings, Purcell (1982); Franklin B Zimmerman, Henry Purcell 1659-1695: His Life and Times (1967).