Henry Purcell was born in 1659. His birth place is not known. Also, very little is known about his parents. The only known lineage to the “Persall” family is a letter, dated February 8, 1679, “from Thomas Purcell to John Gostling which refers to ‘my sonne Henry’ and mentions that ‘my sonne is composing...”[1] Purcell died Novemeber 21, 1695 in Westminster, London. As a boy, Purcell served as a chorister at the Chapel Royal. Purcell’s training in London gave rise to his serving as master of music and organist at Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.

As a composer, Purcell wrote sacred and secular works. His works encompassed church anthems, oratorio, as well as opera and odes/welcome songs for royalty and others, instrumental and vocal. Some of his most famous works include Music on The Death of Queen Mary II, incidental music for Abdelazer, The Tempest, The Indian Queen and his most famous work Dido and Aeneas.

Dido and Aeneas is a three act opera lasting slightly more than an hour. Much discussion ensues with regard to performance practice. According to Westrup, Dido and Aeneas was composed for the “‘Young Gentlewomen’ at JOSIAS PRIEST’S boarding-school at Chelsea in 1689.”[2] It is unknown how the work was performed by the boarding-school girls, as it contains parts for basses in the chorus. Also, two of the lead characters, Aeneas and the sailor, are for tenors.

Opera, of the English tradition in the 16th-17th centuries, is known as ‘a masque,’ which is based on mythological or allegorical themes. Dido and Aeneas belongs to the private masque tradition, set to continuos music, and calls for a large amount of dancing. However, it does not seem to have been performed in public during the composers lifetime.[3] In compositional style, Purcell is said to have “summarized a century of Continental and English musical developments and in many ways went even beyond them.”[4]

Contained within Dido and Aeneas are compositional techniques prevalent in the Baroque Era. In Didos’ lament, appoggiatura’s over a chromatically descending bass line is used. Dance is a very important element in the opera. A chaconne[5] rhythm is found in the dance music for Dido’s court.

But against this must be set the expressive quality of the recitative, the inspired treatment of ground basses, and the imaginative portrayal of witches-not least in the use of an echo behind the scenes.[6]

Finally, it was hoped that Purcell’s work in opera would create a national musical/opera theater tradition in England. This was short lived with his youthful and untimely death in 1695. To this end, English musical drama had no future. Dido and Aeneas was his only true opera; in that all was sung. His other works contain spoken dialogue as well as sung verse.

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1. Jack Westrup. Henry Purcell. The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Ed. Stanley Sadie. (London: MacMillan, Ltd., 1980), vol. 15, p 457.
2. Ibid. p. 461
3. Peter Holman. London: Commonwealth and Restoration. The Early Baroque Era: from the late 16^th century to the 1600's. Ed. Curtis Price. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), p. 318.
4. Ulrick, Homer & Paul A. Pisk. A History of Music and Musical Style. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1963), p. 233.
5. A Baroque dance in triple meter whose musical scheme was incorporated into a continuous form. Richard Hudson. Chaconne. The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: MacMillan, Ltd., 1980. Vol. 4, p. 100.
6. Westrup, The New Grove, p. 461.


Bibliography

Grout, Donald Jay. A Short History of Opera.New York: Columbia University Press, 1947.

Holman, Peter. London: Commonwealth and Restoration. The Early Baroque Era: from the late 16^th century to the 1600's. Ed. Curtis Price. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. Pp. 305-326.

Purcell, Henry. Dido and Aeneas an Opera. Ed. Curtis Price. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1986.

Purcell, Henry. Dido and Aeneas. Dido and Aeneas and Music for Plays & Masques. Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman, director. Telarc CD 80424, 1996.

Ulrick, Homer & Paul A. Pisk. A History of Music and Musical Style. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1963.

Westrup, Jack. Henry Purcell. The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians.

Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: MacMillan, Ltd., 1980. Vol. 15, pp. 457-476.

Westrup, J. A. Opera in England and Germany. The New Oxford History of Music: Opera and Church Music 163-1750. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. Vol 5, pp. 281-286.


Thomas R. Vozzella © 2009