Henry Purcell is seen as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers. His earliest surviving works date from 1680 and show a complete command of musical composition. They include some fantasias for viols, masterpieces of contrapuntal writing, and more contemporary sonatas for violins, which reveal some acquaintance with Italian models. Purcell, in his time, became increasingly in demand as a composer, and his theatre music in particular made his name familiar to many who knew nothing of his church music or the odes and welcome songs he wrote for the court of three different kings over twenty-five years.
To begin to chronicle the life of Henry Purcell is a difficult task as there is not much know of the life of the great composer. In the readings this author has done there seems to be as much assumption as fact in the books that hold the biographies of the life of Purcell. Much of the readings look to the events of the time in......
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