Mr. Henry Purcell, known as Britain’s Orpheus, celebrates his 350th birthday this month. It’s going to take some cake to support all those candles. He may not be as famous a star as other composers with significant anniversaries this year (Haydn, Mendelssohn), but he is a big deal in England, and rightfully so. He is its native-born hero of the Baroque, the man who put English opera on the world map, so to speak, as well as producing scads of vocal music for all occasions, plus brilliant music for viols and for keyboard. His inspired way of combining the formality of Baroque counterpoint with lively tunes or emotionally touching text is what made his reputation and has kept it alive. If you aren’t familiar with Purcell, here are some guideposts to get you onto the right path into his music.

With Purcell, the obvious place to start is his only full opera, Dido and Aeneas. It’s “full” in the sense that it is completely sung, but it is very modest compared to the modern idea of opera. It has a small cast of characters, accompanied only by strings and continuo, and although it does have three acts, it lasts only an hour. The story is familiar to anyone who knows the story of Aeneas, but to make it more marketable, witches, a storm, and a hunt — popular devices of the day — were added. Dido’s lament from the end of the opera, “When I am laid in earth,” is its most famous excerpt, and may be the most popular of any of Purcell’s vocal pieces.

MusicAeterna; Teodor Currentzis, cond. – Dido and Aeneas: The Witches’ Dance

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Simone Kermes, soprano – Dido and Aeneas: When I am laid in earth (Dido’s Lament)

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The rest of Purcell’s “operas” are now known as “semi-operas” or “masques,” sort of the English Baroque equivalent of Broadway musicals. These were often based on spoken plays, and modified to suit the inclusion of musical numbers, which often could then also be removed if necessary (in the same way TV broadcasters today sometimes edit movie musicals). The most famous of these are The Fairy Queen (based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream); King Arthur (adapted by the original playwright, John Dryden, for Purcell); and The Indian Queen (from a play by Dryden’s brother-in-law, Robert Howard). All contain supernatural beings or gods and goddesses not found in the original works, but which made it easier to introduce music into the action (as summer blockbuster movies ceaselessly prove, who needs a comprehensible plot?). Those types of characters also gave the creators a chance to add as much spectacle as they wanted, which Restoration audiences seemed to eat up. This summer, in honor of this milestone birthday, Purcell’s music for The Fairy Queen was treated to a full scholarly re-interpretation, presented at Glyndebourne. King Arthur was Purcell’s most successful work financially, and was revived several times in the first 90 years after his death. When he died, only in his mid-30s, he left the music for The Indian Queen unfinished; it was completed by his brother, Daniel.

English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, cond. – The Fairy Queen: Thrice happy lovers

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English Baroque Soloists; John Eliot Gardiner, cond. – King Arthur: Come if you dare

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Academy of Ancient Music; Christopher Hogwood, cond. – The Indian Queen: Ye twice ten hundred deities

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Related to his semi-operas, Purcell’s incidental music for plays also holds an important place in his complete worklist. Most of it was written late in his life, after William and Mary took the throne and Purcell’s royal duties were reduced. The music included songs and dances, and short orchestral pieces to call the audience’s attention to the start of the entertainment (“first music” and “second music”), mark the change of scene between acts (“act tunes”), and the end of the play (“curtain tunes”). Purcell’s music for Aphra Behn’s Abdelazer is the most frequently excerpted of his incidental scores, especially ever since Benjamin Britten used its Rondeau as the theme for his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

The Parley of Instruments – Abdelazer: Rondeau

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From the modern popularity of Purcell’s semi-operas, it’s easy to see why his many songs have always been popular, prompting the publication of the collection Orpheus Brittanicus in 1698 (part 1) and 1702 (part 2), the source of Purcell’s nickname. Some songs first appeared in John Playford’s Choice Ayres in 1679, others in John’s son Henry’s 1688 book, Banquet of Musick. Among these, Sylvia, now your scorn give over, and Ah! how pleasant ’tis to love, achieved such popularity that Purcell transcribed them for harpsichord and had them published in The Second Part of Musick’s Hand-maid of 1689. Modern vocalists favor the last of his settings of If music be the food of love, and the song O solitude, my sweetest choice.

Barbara Hendricks – If music be the food of love

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Carolyn Sampson – O solitude, my sweetest choice

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As part of Purcell’s royal musical duties, he began composing odes and welcome songs in 1683.The odes Hail Bright Cecilia (for St. Cecilia’s Day festivities) and Come ye sons of art away (for Queen Mary’s birthday) are particularly brilliant, grand, and jubilant celebratory works, scored for larger forces than any of his other music, although still modest by today’s standards. Hail, bright Cecilia has one of the best ode texts Purcell set. He was able to illustrate Nicholas Brady’s references to musical instruments appropriately.
 
 
Collegium Vocale; Philippe Herreweghe, cond. – Hail Bright Cecilia: Hail Bright Cecilia

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Choir of King’s College Cambridge; Academy of Ancient Music; Stephen Cleobury, cond. – Come ye sons of art away: Sound the trumpet

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Because of Purcell’s positions at the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey, and his education as a chorister and organist, most of his choral works are sacred music. A sad occasion that combined the royal and the sacred and allowed Purcell the opportunity to write some of his most memorable music was Queen Mary’s funeral, which took place in March 1695. Some of his earlier Burial Service music was used also, but Purcell composed a march and canzona and the choral anthem Thou know’st, Lord, the secrets of our hearts specifically for the elaborate, yet very solemn event. The anthem is hushed and resigned, a fitting send-off to the departing spirit. It was performed again a few months later, in November 1695 at Purcell’s own funeral.

The Symphony of Harmony and Invention; Harry Christophers, cond. – Music for the funeral of Queen Mary: Canzona

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The Sixteen; Harry Christophers, cond. – Thou know’st, Lord

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Given the importance of the voice in Purcell’s music, his instrumental music is often overshadowed. But it shouldn’t be. Like the songs, instrumental arrangements of his incidental music were published in suites after his death, in A Collection of Ayres, Compos’d for the Theatre, and upon Other Occasions. During his lifetime, he published a set of trio sonatas; his keyboard music appeared in Henry Playford’s The Second Part of Musick’s Hand-Maid (1689); and eight harpsichord suites were published by Purcell’s wife in A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet (1696). Later editions of the latter included Purcell’s own transcriptions for keyboard of some of the theater tunes.

Sophie Yates – Suite No. 2 in G minor: Courant

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Sophie Yates – Suite No. 6 in D major: Prelude

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Sophie Yates – Hornpipe (Rondeau from Abdelazer)

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When he was 20, Purcell wrote a series of fantasias for viol consort. At the time, the English tradition of music for viol consorts was a dying art, so the fantasias were not heard widely outside of court circles, but in the 20th century, these came to be recognized as unique representations of Baroque counterpoint, distinct from German, French, or Italian contemporary music.
 
 
 
 
Les Voix humaines – Fantasia upon one note for 5 viols in F major

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Les Voix humaines – Fantasy for 3 viols in D minor

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Fretwork – In nomine for 6 viols in G minor

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Aside from the whole controversy over whether the famous Trumpet Voluntary was composed by Purcell or Jeremiah Clarke, that’s Purcell’s music in a nutshell. If you want more info on the man himself, the BBC’s Radio3 Composers of the Year website is a good place to start.