Henry Purcell

Few composers have been as loved as Henry Purcell. Born into the highest musical circles in England and acclaimed after his premature death as "Orpheus Britannicus", Purcell's reputation and influence have endured, uninterrupted, to the present day. And yet little is known about the vital facts of his life. He seems to have been born in the second half of 1659 in Westminster, became a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and participated in court musical life under the restored King Charles II. A musical cosmopolitan, he composed Fantasias for strings in the old English manner (1680), songs for the publisher John Playford, and in 1683, twelve Trio Sonatas after "fam'd Italian masters". After 1683, as organist of the Chapel Royal, he produced a magnificently rich series of verse anthems and court Odes and supplemented his court work with music for London's thriving theatres, including the opera Dido and Aeneas (c. 1688) and the "semi-operas" Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691), The Fairy Queen (1692) and The Indian Queen (1695). He continued to maintain links with the court; with the Princess of Denmark (the future Queen Anne) and with Queen Mary, for whose funeral in March 1695 he composed the music. That music would also be performed at his own funeral, just eight months later. It would be nearly two centuries before the British Isles produced a composer of comparable standing.