I
England alone produced a truly great composer whose lifetime fell within the century, Henry Purcell.
Henry Purcell.
After an old engraving.
The date of his birth has not been exactly determined. He died on the 21st of November, 1695, at the age of only thirty-seven years. As a boy he sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal, and when his voice broke he was still retained as a supernumerary. In 1680 he succeeded Dr. John Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey and held the post until his death. He began to compose when very young and in his brief life set his stamp upon almost every form of music then known, though he found the first expression of his remarkable genius in music for the stage and incidental music for plays. In this branch his opera ‘Dido and Æneas’ (1689-1691) maintains the highest excellence. What is most striking in it, and, indeed, is most striking in all Purcell’s music, is the genuineness of feeling. He gave his music lasting life. There is little trace of empty formalism or of arid conventionalism which stifled the music of so many opera composers of his day. Its freshness is in no way stale to-day. His use of harmony as a means of emotional expression is far ahead of any of his contemporaries, and he had a gift of spontaneous melody which has never been excelled by any other save perhaps Schubert. The death song of Dido in the opera just mentioned is nearly as startling in relation to the time in which it was written as Monteverdi’s ‘Lament of Ariadne.’ A few measures of most expressive recitative lead to the song, which, characteristically English, is indeed a song and not the stiff aria of the day. It is a striking example of Purcell’s skill in working over a ground bass, in this case a descending chromatic phrase full of melancholy and pathos. ‘Dido and Æneas’ is the only English opera in the strict sense of the word. Unhappily the rich promise of a national school of English opera which it contains was never fulfilled. Almost immediately after the death of Purcell Italian opera invaded London and in 1711 was firmly established there by Handel.
Purcell wrote a great deal of music for the theatre, but for the most part in the form of songs and instrumental dances. Among the plays for which he wrote music should be mentioned Dryden’s ‘King Arthur’ and ‘The Indian Queen’; ‘Diocletian,’ ‘The Fairy Queen,’ and the ‘Tempest.’ His most important instrumental works are a set of twelve sonatas for two violins, bass and figured bass for harpsichord, published in 1683, and another similar set of ten published after his death by his widow, and eight suites for harpsichord. All these are in keeping with the general style of the time. The sonatas, the first set of which appeared in the same year as Corelli’s opus 1, are marked by seriousness which tends toward heaviness in comparison with Corelli’s work. They are less spontaneous than his vocal music, but they are of high artistic merit. The works for harpsichord are touched by the charm of English tunefulness and are no less dainty for being conspicuously simple in comparison with the more elaborate work of the French writers. The greatest part of Purcell’s work must remain an isolated monument of great genius, for it had little influence upon the general course of music in his day. However, his anthems and semi-sacred odes hold an important historical position, inasmuch as they contain magnificent choruses, from a study of which Handel obviously and greatly profited. Purcell was second to none of his contemporaries in technical skill. He stood above them in musical power, in the fullness and virility of his ideas, in genuineness and simplicity, in those qualities which elevate genius above technical mastery and agreeable ease. His music rings clear and true.