Circa: 1659 - 1695

Place of Birth: London, England

Period: Baroque

Influences: Locke, Blow, Cook, Humfrey

Best Known Works: Dido and Aeneas, Te Deum, Jubilate, Fantasias

Did You Know?

Purcell almost lost his job as organist at Westminster Abbey when he was found to be selling seats in the organ loft for the Coronation of William Of Orange.

Facts.

Little is known of Purcell's early life, except that he music have been a child prodigy as he had his first piece of music published when he was only 8 years old. This early musical success set him up to become known by some, as the greatest ever English composer.

At the age of 10 he became a soprano at the Chapel Royal and his formal musical education began. His education and career would both be closely linked to the monarchy from this time. He would eventually hold several jobs at court including composer-in-ordinary to the King's violins, Royal Harpsichordist, Organist at Westminster Abbey, and Royal Musical Repair Man. At one point he wasn't even sure if he still had the repair man job, as he didn't seem to get paid for it. It took him two years to eventually get the money he was owed.

A great deal of the music he composed was for Royal occasions, Anthems for Coronations, Elegies for funerals, and Odes for saints days and to welcome guests. He also wrote a large ammount of music for the theatre. So in demand was his theatrical music that at one point he had to draft in his brother Daniel, from Oxford, to help him out.

Between the early 16th Century and the beginning of the 20th there was only one genius of composition produced in England, and that was Henry Purcell. There was no great originality of the style of his work, but what his music represents is an impressive coming together and summing up of the musical currents of the time. He brilliantly combined French and Italian influences in his more dramatic pieces, and yet retained a great air of Englishness in his church music. He really knew how to use the words well and his songs are some of the best written over the last few hundred years.