Henry Purcell lived through an interesting period in British history. In 1659, the year of his birth, Richard Cromwell was still Lord Protector , but 1660 saw the restoration of the monarchy in the form of Charles II. Then, in 1688, Charles’ younger brother, James (II), who had ascended the throne in 1685, was removed from power in the so-called ‘Bloodless Revolution’ and replaced with the joint monarchy of William and Mary (James’ daughter).
The main sticking-point in this was James’ efforts to rehabilitate the Roman Catholic religion in what was, by this time, a Protestant country.
While all this political/religious upheaval caused more than a few problems generally, for British composers the move from the Church of Rome to the Church of England was something of a gold mine. Much of that ‘popish’ music had to be replaced, and, what’s more, replaced with texts not in Latin but in English!
Purcell is regarded as the greatest of these composers. Here are two examples of his sacred music.
Compare this Te Deum with last week’s settings by Lully and Charpentier:
Purcell wrote this music for the funeral service of Queen Mary II in 1695 which was also the year of his own death:
00:00 March in C minor
02:16 Funeral sentence «Man that is born In the midst of life»
08:18 Canzona
10:42 Funeral sentence «Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts»
13:36 March in C minor
← Back to page 3
← Back to page 2
← Back to page 1
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as “fair use”, for the purpose of study, and critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner(s).
The Art of Listening 