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I; i-
HENRY PURCELL: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
By Carl Storm
1962
Unlike other composers who have been subjects for our musical
sermons over past years and about whom much has been written
concerning their personal lives, our composer for this year is a near
nomentity from the point of view of what is personally known about
him and is all too little known even through his music. This is no
little surprise insofar as during his lifetime he was hailed as the
most famous English musician of his age and when he died was
acclaimed "one of the most Celebrated Masters of the Science of
Musick in the Kingdom, and scarce inferiour to any in Europe", and
was buried with great fame and much ceremony in Westminster
Abbey. About so illustrious a figure, one might expect a
considerable amount of personal information to have been gathered
from outsiders, at least, if not from the subject himself. The
inquisitive Pepys who lived at the time and was a passionate lover
of music must certainly have come across Purcell at some time
during his life and very likely could have provided us with some
information, even if not above the level of gossip, but this he failed
to do having brought his famous diary to a stop in 1669 when Purcell
was only ten years old. Likewise with the cultivated Evelyn who
also kept a diary and greatly enjoyed music, but who was much more
interested in performers than in composers. He makes mention of
the fact that when he was an old man he heard some songs by the
Late Dr. Purcell at Pepys' house, but he does not say what they were
or what he thought of them and about Purcell himself he gives no
inform ation.
Prom Purcell we have almost nothing in the way of personal record.
He left a will which like most wills only testifies to the claim that
he died in full possession of his mental faculties and some
dedications and prefaces to his few published works which are
interesting but non-revealing concerning his personal life. The
result is that in a biographical sense, we have no real life of Purcell
and very likely shall never have one. The very date of his birth is
unknown. From various official records, upon which his life must be
re-constructed , the
year appears tobe 1659 but his time of birth
between June and November of that year is quite unknown and may
have occurred even outside the range of those months. Even about
his parentage there
is uncertainty.Westrup advances the theory
that he was the son, not as commonly supposed of Henry Purcell the
; ;
elder, but of the reputed uncle Thomas. Holland, on the other hand,
holds this to be only an ingenious theory without substantiation.
There is still disagreement as to which of the Purcell brothers,
Thomas or Henry, was father of the Henry Purcell in whom we are
particularly interested.
Relative to Purcell's music, "unluckily", said Burney, "he built his
fame with such perishable materials that his worth and works are
greatly diminishing...and so much is our great musician's celebrity
already consigned to tradition that it will soon be as difficult to
find his songs or at least to hear them, as those of his
predecessors..." In a measure this is quite true. Purcell is largely
unknown. Only slowly has there been a re-discovery and a new
appreciation of his music. A good bit of it, particularly that having
to do with the stage, is not likely to be ever truly re-found for it is
very unlikely that the dramatic works for which he wrote the music
will ever again be given major dramatic attention. It is more or less
by chance that we have some of this stage music made available to'
us.
We shall now here two of his airs from
DauMe Deafer which
stand in contrast to the organ preludes that we have already heard. ;
DauMe Deafer first produced in 1693 at the Theatre Royal,
Covent Garden, London, and written by William Congreve was rather
typical of Restoration Comedy, being witty,^highly mannered, and
occasionally bawdy. That Purcell should have written for the
cathedral organ, as well as, for the theatrical stage may strike us as
being somewhat odd. But the seventeenth century did not recognize
any water-tight compartments for the musician's art. "Men of our
profession", said Dr. Blow, "hang between the church and the
playhouse as Mahomet's tomb does between the two load-stones and
just equally incline to both because by both we are equally
supported."
(Airs from
DauM^ Deafer)
Bom in 1659, Purcell was a child of the Restoration Period. That is
to say he was bom shortly before Charles II's return from European
exile and restoration of the monarchy following upon the collapse of
the Commonwealth under Cromwell's eldest surviving son.
Cromwell, himself had been a lover of music in his private life but
his Puritanism , as well as, his political position had seriously
curtailed the performance and production of music in England, Not
. 2"
3
only had music attendant upon royalty been brought to an end, but
cathedral choirs had been suppressed, organs had been either
destroyed or silenced, and the Chapel Royal had been disbanded at
the time of the execution of Charles I. With Restoration there was
hope even on the part of some who were not too keen about the
return of royalty that some of the drabness of Puritanism would be
over-come and that music would be given a new lease on life. This
was the case. There was music for Charles II's procession as it
moved from the Tower of London to Whitehall on the day before the
coronation and there was music at the coronation, with both Thomas
and Henry Purcell singing in the choir.
One of Charles the Second's first acts, musically speaking, had been
the re-establishment of the Chapel Royal. This had once been and
now was again to be a fertile training ground for some outstanding
musicians. The term did not refer so much to the place where the
sovereign attended divine service, as to the body of clergy and
musicians who formed his personal religious establishment. The
choir or choirs contained senior choristers, called Gentlemen of the
Chapel Royal, among whom were Thomas and Henry Purcell. In
addition there were boy choristers, normally twelve in number, who
were known as the Children of the Chapel Royal. These were given
musical training, education, and general care. Once their childish
voices had broken they had the possibility of moving into the more
senior ranks or going on somewhat independently with their music,
or following a career in the royal service. In the reconstituted
Chapel Royal,they were under the guidance and supervision of
Captain Henry Cooke, an excellent musician, who derived his title
from having fought with the royalist forces during the Civil War. He
had the power, a power which extended far back in history, to
pressgang promising boys into the royal service. This could not have
been pleasing to many provincial organists and choirmasters who
must have been greatly disturbed at having their best pupils filched
from them, but to be one of Captain Cooke's boys was generally
looked upon as being a high privilege. Amongst his choristers were a
good many who afterwards rose to fame as musicians and
composers. One of these was John Blow from Nottingham and
another was to be Henry Purcell.
Let us here break the continuity of our account and listen to one of
Purcell's so-called TW<9
So-called, because contrary to
title, the trio sonata was a form generally performed by four
instruments rather than three. Purcell wrote two sets of such
4
sonatas, reflective of his interest in the new concerted style that
had grown up in Italy. He makes use of the violin which was a
relatively new instrument as a medium for chamber music having
been commonly downgraded as an instrument of common fiddlers,
and his style is both polyphonic and harmonic, with the organ or in
this instance the harpsichord providing the chordal background while
the other instruments indulge in imitation and fugue.
(7W<? SbM#?#)
On August the eleventh, 1664, the elder Henry Purcell died and two
days later his remains were buried in the east cloister of
Westminster Abbey. Tradition has it that young Henry was taken
into the Chapel Royal a few months later when he was only six years
of age. This, however, seems highly unlikely, insofar as other
children, however precocious, were not taken until they were some
ten or twelve years of age. What we do know with assurance from
the records is that he was one of the children of the Chapel Royal
and that his voice broke in 1673 which would have made him then
some fourteen years of age. Just how long he was a boy chorister
we do not know, but that he must early have begun to distinguish
himself as a composer is indicated by report that he composed the
music for "The Address of the children of the Chapel Royal to the
King and their master, Captain Cooke, on His majesty's Birthday, A.D.
1670". The composition itself, has been lost, but that it was even
remembered suggests that it must have had merit since
compositions by Captain Cooke's boys were far too numerous to
attract more than a fleeting interest unless they were really
outstanding.
In the same year that his voice broke, he was given his first
appointment as assistant to John Hingston as keeper and repairer of
the King's wind instruments. This was a modest but in no way an
unimportant or an undignified appointment. In the seventeenth
century there was scarcely any of our specialized distinction
between workman and performer. To be a repairer and tuner of
instruments, as well as, a performer and even a composer was
commonly assumed to be an important aspect of practical
musicianship. According to Westrup, when the organ at Westminster
Abbey was restored in the first year of Charles II's reign,
Christopher Gibbons, the organist was paid twenty shillings for his
share in the work of tuning it. Bernard Smith, one of the most
famous of organ-builders, not only built an organ in St. Margaret's,
5
Westminster, but was also organist of the church for thirty-two
years.
Hingston was an outstanding musician and a distinguished organist
even favored by Cromwell whose daughter he taught and from him
Purcell learned much, not only about the repair and tuning of organs
but also the playing of them. On Hingston's death he succeeded to
full authority, having already been entrusted with the tuning of the
organ at Westminster Abbey. Then when only eighteen years of age,
he was named to succeed Locke as composer for the King's Violins.
The king's band of twenty-four violins had been instituted soon after
the Restoration in imitation of a like musical organization at the
French Court. Its duties were principally to play at court functions
wherever the king was in residence. The king liked music that was
airy and brisk and at first the King's Violins did not take part in the
services in the Chapel Royal. When finally they did, they gave to
those services a decidedly non-solemn characteristic. According to
Evelyn it was music "better suiting a tavern or playhouse than a
church". Purcell, in performance of his duties as composer for the
King's Violins must have written a considerable number of airs and
dances for court functions, but these were apparently looked upon as
ephemeral along with the occasions and have not survived. We can
only assume that they very likely contained some very good music,
since Purcell was never one to shirk pouring his full strength into
whatever musical work he did.
During the offertory, however, we shall have the opportunity to
listen to the overture to one of Purcell's outstanding works that has
survived. Ishall have more to say about this work as we go along
for the major portion of it will comprise the rest of the music in our
service this morning.
(Overture - (Me For
Cecf&a'j 'j* Day)
Some two years after his appointment as Composer for the King's
Violins, Purcell was named to succeed John Blow as organist of
Westminster Abbey. It was a post, along with others, that he was to
hold for the rest of his life. However, his life was to be relatively
brief and in time John Blow would once again take up his old
appointment.
In 1680, the yearafter his appointment at the Abbey,
Purcell was active not only as acomposer for the court, the
chamber, and the church, but also for the stage. Some of his writing
for the court must have been trying, as when in that year he had to
6
compose "a Song to Welcome home his Majesty from Windsor" and
had to wrestle with such insipid lines as:
His absence was Autumn, his presence is Spring
That ever new life and new pleasure does bring,
Then all that have voices, let 'em cheerfully sing,
And those that have none may say: 'God save the King'."
He was likewise to be up against some pretty tough lines when it
came to doing music for the stage, and yet, time and again despite
the lines, he turned out beautiful and expressive songs, never
without surprise in his musicalhandling of the words. We have just
heard the overture to his
Cecffrn'y Day; In a moment or so
we shall hear the first two of several vocal numbers from that
work, but first let me say a little something about it and give the
lines that are to be sung.
St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music, whose birthday the 22nd of
November was rather widely celebrated throughout Europe by lovers
of music. In England the occasion was first celebrated in 1683,
when a body called "The Musical Society" decided to commission a
distinguished poet to write an ode in praise of music to be set by a
distinguished composer. Concerning the occasion of 1691, we are
told that the company foregathered in the morning in St. Bride's
Church, where a service was performed by most skilled musicians,
and a sermon was preached in defence of Cathedral Music, which had
lately been suppressed under the Puritans. The assembly then
repaired to Stationers Hall to hear the new ode composed in Cecilia's
honor, after which they sat down to a banquet. Purcell apparently
took part in and contributed to a number of these occasions, but his
most famous composition in connection with St. Cecilia's day was
that done for the year 1692, toward the end of his life. The poem
was by Nicholas Brady, Chaplain to the Queen and it followed the
conventional pattern of giving praise to music in general, and then
going on in praise of various musical instruments. The opening
declamation states:
Hail! bright Cecilia, fill ev'ry heart
With love of thee and thy celestial art,
That thine, and Music's sacred love
May make the English forest prove
As famous as Dodona's vocal grove.
7
And following this comes another number, set to the lines:
Hark, each tree its silence breaks,
The box and fir to talk begin,
This in the sprightly violin,
That in the flute distinctly speaks.
Twas sympathy their list-ning brethren drew,
When to the Thracian lyre with leafy wings they flew.
As poetry the lines are pretty laborious, but listen to what Purcell
does with them.
(Two vocal numbers from - - (Me Far & CectKa 'j Day)
Probably sometime during 1681 Purcell married. About his wife
almost nothing is known, beyond the fact that her Christian name
was Frances and indication that her maiden name was Peters.
Apparently they had a number of children, several of which died in
infancy.Tradition relates that Purcell was a man of intemperate
habits and given to late hours, that his wife, indignant at these
excesses refused to admit him after midnight and he consequently
caught a cold which brought on his death. All this, however, has no
foundation beyond that of gossip and in light of his many duties is
highly unlikely.
In 1682 Purcell was named one of the three organists of the Chapel
Royal, which along with his Westminster post called for much
composition of church music. In 1683 he ventured into print on his
own account for the first time with his 7n<9 SbMafay. The death of
Charles the Second in the early part of 1685 brought a few months
later the coronation of James the Second, for which occasion Purcell
wrote some of the music; his anthem, Afy
q / (?<?<%?
being considered one of the finest thing he ever wrote. But
the new reign was not to last long. James the Second was openly a
Catholic, where as Charles the Second had rather secretly died one
and the nation would not put up with a Catholic sovereign. Towards
the close of 1688, the King and Queen fled the country to be
succeeded by William the Third and Mary. On April the eleventh,
1689, Purcell had to assist at the second coronation within four
years. The occasion was marred for Purcell by an unfortunate
occurrence, it was usual for spectators to be admitted to the organ
loft on royal occasions and they were ready to pay for the privilege,
as they enjoyed an excellent view of the proceedings. The fees were
5
collected by the organist, who was expected to hand them over to
the Dean and Chapter. On this occasion Purcell neglected to do so,
either because he mistakenly regarded them as his perquisite, or
more likely simply because he had not gotten around to doing so
under the pressure of many duties. There is nothing in the
obviousness of the situation that leads to any thought of his
attempting to be other than honest. The Dean and Chapter, however,
lost no time in passing a blistering resolution,demanding the money
on threat of suspension from his position. Purcell paid and retained
his position. A short while later he set an ode for the Queen's
Birthday.
At this point let us listen to another two numbers from the
Cecf/fa (Me. First the words:
Soul of the world, inspired by thee,
The jarring seeds of matter did agree.
Thou didst the scattered atoms bind
Which by the laws of true proportion joined,
Made up of various parts, one perfect harmony.
The second set to the brief lines:
Thou tun'st this world below, the spheres above,
Who in the heavenly round to their own music move.
(Two vocal numbers from - - (Me Far 3;. Ce<r%fa'.y 'j Day)
Purcell wrote a tremendous amount of music for the stage, most of
it after the accession of W iliam and Mary, and during the last six
years of his life. Much of it was incidental music, the Restoration
theatre wanting music but tending to keep the music apart from the
dramatic action. Nevertheless some of this music in and of itself
represents Purcell at his finest. He did music for revamped versions
of Shakespeare's 7%^ 7!ewipe.yf and A A/MrM/wm^r A7igA;'.yDream, and
some of his most fruitful collaboration was with the poet Dryden in
such works as King ArM^r and
Trnifan Queen. And he wrote, on a
libretto furnished by Nahum Tate for performance at a girl's school,
one of his finest works, considered by many to be his greatest
masterpiece, the opera D%?<? ami Aeneas.
It was a true opera in the
sense that every word is sung and eveiy note is significant. It was
the one and only opera he wrote and it has been described as "the
only perfect English opera ever written".
The last years of Purcell's life were extremely busy. Besides his
work for the church, the court, and the stage, he was called upon to
do music for various celebrations of the day. He was commissioned
by the Yorkshiremen in London to write a Yorkshire Feast Song for
their annual reunion in 1690. In 1693, Trinity College, Dublin,
commissioned an ode for their centenary celebrations. In 1694, for
the St. Cecilia's Day celebrations he did a setting of the 7*e Deum and
VMManf with orchestral accompaniment, which for many years was
performed regularly in St. Paul's Cathedral. The same year he did a
Birthday Ode for Queen Mary. It was the last birthday ode that he
was to do for her. For late that year she died of small-pox. For the
funeral service he composed an anthem: 7%<9W
fAe
o/* <?Mr
He had used the words once before as a young
man but this was a new version bom of his maturity. Thomas
Tudway, one of the first set of Captain Cooke's boys, was so moved
when he heard it that long afterwards he wrote: "I appeal to all that
were present...whether they ever heard anything so rapturously fine
and solemn and so heavenly in the operation... and yet a plain, natural
composition: which shows the pow'r of Music, when 'tis rightly
fitted..."
This morning we do not have a performance of that anthem, but again
from the St. Cecilia's Ode, see how rightly fitted is Purcell';s music
to words in praise of the organ ( "wondrous machine" ) the airy
violin, and the am'rous flute.
(number from - -
CecfR#'.? *F Day)
Purcell became ill in the autumn of 1695. The likelihood is that he
had tuberculosis. Eveiy now and then he roused himself to compose.
The last song he is said to have set contained the lines:
Ah! 'tis in vain, 'tis all in vain.
Death and despair must end the fatal pain.
Cold despair disguis'd like snow and rain falls on my breast,
Bleak winds in tempest blow.
On the twenty-first of November he made his will. It was the eve of
St. Cecilia's Day. That night he died in his thirty-seventh year. The
Dean and Chapter of Westminster unanimously decided that he would
be buried in Westminster Abbey. His wife asked that he should be
laid to rest at the foot of the organ which he had played for some
'
fifteen years. He was carried there on November the twenty-sixth
and the music played was his own, including that written so short a
while before for Queen Mary's funeral.
(
Many honored him at his death and many sorrowed for him. The
Italian composer, Arcangelo Corelli, who had set out for England in
the hope of seeing him turned back at Calais on learning of his death.
There was no point in continuing his journey now that the greatness
had departed from English music. Dryden wrote an Ode which John
Blow set to music. A long Latin inscription was carved upon his
tombstone and on a pillar close by a tablet was placed to inform all
who passed by that "Here lies Henry Purcell, who left this life and is
gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded."
Writers and musicians strove to excel one another in their tributes
but perhaps the simplest of all was at the same time the most
touching. An obscure writer in an obscure journal called 77:2
wrote: "He is much lamented, being a very great Master of
Music."