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Browse piano sheets by Henry Purcell on Zen Virtual Piano. Dido and Aeneas (1688) never found its way to the theatre at the time, and only one song was printed by Purcell’s widow in Orpheus Britannicus. Among his most notable works are the semi-operas Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691), The Fairy-Queen (1692) and Timon of Athens (1695). Henry Purcell (c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer and organist of the middle Baroque era. He was born in St Ann’s Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster, and from that year the family lived just a few hundred yards west of Westminster Abbey. The earliest work that can be identified as Purcell’s with certainty is an ode for the King’s birthday, written in 1670, when he was eleven. An ode for the King’s birthday as his earliest firmly identified work, at eleven, ties that piece to the court around him. The composer Matthew Locke was a family friend and probably also had a musical influence on the young Henry. A family friend who wrote semi-operas suggests that the stage was part of the musical air he grew up in. When Henry’s voice broke in 1673, he left his post as a chorister in the Chapel Royal and became an assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, keeper of wind instruments to the King. In 1679 Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey 10 years before, resigned his office in favour of Purcell. Purcell then devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music and for six years severed his connection with the theatre, having probably written his two important stage works before taking up the new office. Semi-operas dated between 1690 and 1695 and an earlier appointment in sacred music that closed his theatre work for six years show how his career ran in alternating currents. Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate Deo were both written for Saint Cecilia’s Day, 1694, and the Te Deum was the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. He died on 21 November 1695 at his home in Marsham Street, at the height of his career, and is buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music that he had earlier composed for Queen Mary’s funeral was performed during his funeral, and he was universally mourned as “a very great master of music.” Music written for one royal occasion and heard again at his own funeral suggests a body of work that could speak across occasions, not only to the one it was made for.
Browse piano sheets by Henry Purcell on Zen Virtual Piano.
Dido and Aeneas (1688) never found its way to the theatre at the time, and only one song was printed by Purcell’s widow in Orpheus Britannicus. Among his most notable works are the semi-operas Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691), The Fairy-Queen (1692) and Timon of Athens (1695).
Henry Purcell (c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer and organist of the middle Baroque era. He was born in St Ann’s Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster, and from that year the family lived just a few hundred yards west of Westminster Abbey. The earliest work that can be identified as Purcell’s with certainty is an ode for the King’s birthday, written in 1670, when he was eleven. An ode for the King’s birthday as his earliest firmly identified work, at eleven, ties that piece to the court around him.
The composer Matthew Locke was a family friend and probably also had a musical influence on the young Henry. A family friend who wrote semi-operas suggests that the stage was part of the musical air he grew up in. When Henry’s voice broke in 1673, he left his post as a chorister in the Chapel Royal and became an assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, keeper of wind instruments to the King. In 1679 Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey 10 years before, resigned his office in favour of Purcell. Purcell then devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music and for six years severed his connection with the theatre, having probably written his two important stage works before taking up the new office. Semi-operas dated between 1690 and 1695 and an earlier appointment in sacred music that closed his theatre work for six years show how his career ran in alternating currents.
Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate Deo were both written for Saint Cecilia’s Day, 1694, and the Te Deum was the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. He died on 21 November 1695 at his home in Marsham Street, at the height of his career, and is buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music that he had earlier composed for Queen Mary’s funeral was performed during his funeral, and he was universally mourned as “a very great master of music.” Music written for one royal occasion and heard again at his own funeral suggests a body of work that could speak across occasions, not only to the one it was made for.
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Common questions
At the time it never found its way to the theatre, and only one song was printed by Purcell’s widow in Orpheus Britannicus.
In 1679, when Blow, who had been appointed 10 years before, resigned the office in his favour.
A Te Deum and a Jubilate Deo; the Te Deum was the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment.