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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:
and
France
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.