As England's greatest composer of the Baroque, Henry
Purcell was dubbed the "Orpheus Britannicus" for his
ability to combine pungent English counterpoint with
expressive, flexible, and dramatic word settings. While
he did write instrumental music, including the
important viol fantasias, the vast majority of his
output was in the vocal/choral realm. His only opera,
Dido and Aeneas, divulged his sheer mastery in the
handling of the work's vast expressive canvas, which
included lively dance numbers...(+)
As England's greatest composer of the Baroque, Henry
Purcell was dubbed the "Orpheus Britannicus" for his
ability to combine pungent English counterpoint with
expressive, flexible, and dramatic word settings. While
he did write instrumental music, including the
important viol fantasias, the vast majority of his
output was in the vocal/choral realm. His only opera,
Dido and Aeneas, divulged his sheer mastery in the
handling of the work's vast expressive canvas, which
included lively dance numbers, passionate arias and
rollicking choruses. Purcell also wrote much incidental
music for stage productions, including that for
Dryden's King Arthur. His church music includes many
anthems, devotional songs, and other sacred works, but
few items for Anglican services.
Purcell was born in 1659 to Henry Purcell, master of
choristers at Westminster Abbey, and his wife
Elizabeth. When he was five, his father died, forcing
his mother to resettle the family of six children into
a more modest house and lifestyle. In about 1668,
Purcell became a chorister in the Chapel Royal,
studying under chorus master Henry Cooke. He also took
keyboard lessons from Christopher Gibbons, son of the
composer Orlando Gibbons, and it is likely that he
studied with John Blow and Matthew Locke. In 1673,
Purcell was appointed assistant to John Hingeston, the
royal instrument keeper.
On September 10, 1677, Purcell was given the Court
position of composer-in-ordinary for the violins. It is
believed that many of his church works date from this
time. Purcell, a great keyboard virtuoso by his late
teens, received a second important post in 1679, this
one succeeding Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey, a
position he would retain all his life. That same year
saw the publication of five of the young composer's
songs in John Playford's Choice Ayres and Songs to Sing
to the Theorbo-lute or Bass-viol. Around the same time,
he began writing anthems with string accompaniment,
completing over a dozen before 1685, and welcome songs.
Purcell was appointed one of three organists at the
Chapel Royal in the summer of 1682, his most
prestigious post yet.
The Anthem, in the post-Reformation church music of
England was initially the term given to a choral work
with an English biblical text. By the end of the 17th
century it begins to take on Italian stylistic elements
and becomes a cantata for solo voices, choir and
orchestra. The anthem "O sing unto the Lord" presented
here, based on words of the 96th Psalm, is a
particularly beautiful example of the transformation of
the traditional and the modern style into a unified
whole. It is a relatively late work, noted in the
Gostling Manuscript as ‘Written by Mr Purcell in
1688’. It shows Purcell at his most Italianate, with
vigorous antiphony between voices and instruments, and
also between a prominent solo bass and the chorus. This
seems to have been a verse anthem written for a special
occasion when the large string orchestra was available,
with the block chords that open the work especially
suited to a fuller orchestral texture. Before the
imitative section that almost always makes up the
second half of the Symphony in the anthems Purcell
unusually adds a wonderfully expressive section
(frequently marked ‘Drag’ in manuscripts), full of
chromaticism and diminished harmonies. Although the
writing is overtly celebratory, behind it is the
deliciously wistful quality which is a feature of so
much of Purcell’s music.
After the strings’ Symphony a solo bass ceremoniously
opens the proceedings, followed by two lilting choral
Alleluias, before we are treated to the first of a
series of imaginative instrumental ritornelli. The
four-part verse ‘Sing unto the Lord, and praise his
name’ leads straight into the mysteriously-coloured
‘Declare his honour’, which blossoms into a full
chorus. Ground basses are surprisingly thinly spread in
the church music (compared at least to the odes and
welcome songs) but the duet for treble and alto ‘The
Lord is great’ is a fine example, capped by another
marvellously inventive string ritornello.
The central section of the anthem is the quartet ‘O
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’, as
magical a piece of writing as Purcell ever produced.
After such awestruck writing the antiphony of solo bass
with choir and strings returns at ‘Tell it out among
the heathen’, leading into a final section of
Alleluias. Typically, Purcell treats these Alleluias
gently, and the anthem ends serenely.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell).
Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Basso
Continuo, I created this interpretation of "O sing unto
the Lord" (Z.44) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn &
Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC