Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/125

Rh P U R C E L L 113 wards a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for this extraordinary voice, a basso pro/undo, the compass of which is known to have comprised at least two full octaves, from D below the stave to D above it. The dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known ; but one, " They that go down to the sea in ships," though certainly not written until some time after this period, will be best mentioned here. In thankfulness for a providential escape of the king from shipwreck Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses from the Psalms in the form of an anthem, and requested Purcell to set them to music. The work is 'a very fine one but very difficult, and contains a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostling's voice, beginning on the upper D and descending two octaves to the lower. In 1680 Dr Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil ; and Purcell, at the age of twenty-two, was placed in one of the most honourable positions an English artist could occupy. He now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years entirely severed his connexion with the theatre. But during the early part of the year, and in all prob- ability before entering upon the duties of his new office, he had produced two important works for the stage, the music for Lee's Theodos^^ts and D'Urfey's Virtuous Wife. There is also strong evidence that it was in 1680 not, as has been generally represented, in 1675 that he com- posed his opera Dido and jEneas, a work of far greater significance in the development of art than has generally been supposed, since it forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music. It was written, to a libretto furnished by Nahum Tate, at the request of Josiah Priest, a professor of dancing, who also kept a boarding-school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester Fields and afterwards at Chelsea. At the time of its pro- duction 1 the condition of dramatic music in England was very rudimentary indeed, so much so that the opera, properly so called, cannot fairly be said to have existed even in embryo, though it had long flourished brilliantly in Italy, and was beginning to take firm root in France. No English composer had as yet soared above the songs and choruses introduced into the masques, the comedies, and the tragedies of the period, for the purpose of enliven- ing the performance, music always of a purely incidental character, and always quite unconnected with the pro- gressive action of the piece. Very different was the mixed form of entertainment thus produced from the true musical drama, the invention of which in Italy dated as far back as the closing years of the 16th century. At that period a number of literary and artistic savants among them Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the astronomer, Jacopo Peri, Giulio Carcini, and the poet Rinuccini were accustomed to meet in Florence for purposes of discussion at the house of Giovanni Bardi, count of Vernio. Deeply imbued with the principles of the Renaissance, these heated enthusiasts were determined to carry them from the domain of literature into that of music ; and their first dream was the revival of the method of recitation practised by the early Greeks in the tragedies of vEschylus and Sophocles. This, however, was, if only for technical reasons, absolutely impossible. The art was lost for ever ; but in seeking to resuscitate it they invented something much more precious dramatic recitative. With this at command the construction of the veritable " dramma per la musica " was no difficult matter; and in fact Peri actually pro- 1 The difficulty in fixing the exact date of its composition arises from a doubt as to whether or not it was performed in Leicester Fields before it was played in the new boarding-school at Chelsea. duced a true opera, Euridice, which in 1600 was per- formed at Florence in honour of the marriage of Maria de" Medici with Henry IV. of France. Purcell, who had never been in Italy, confesses himself, in the preface to his sonatas, " unskilful in the Italian language," and could never by any chance have heard an Italian opera; but he knew very well what Italian music was, and had not neglected to study it deeply. Yet it is doubtful whether all Italy could at that moment have produced a work so full of inborn genius as Dido and JEneas? It is a musical drama in the strictest sense of the term, a genuine opera, in which the action is entirely carried on in recitative, without a word of spoken dialogue from beginning to end ; and the music is of the most genial character a veritable inspiration, overflowing with spontaneous melody, and in every respect immensely in advance of its age. It never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to have been very popular among private circles. It is believed to have been extensively copied, but one song only was printed by Purcell's widow in Orpheus Britannicus, and the complete work remained in manuscript until 1840, when it was printed by the Musical Antiquarian Society, under the editorship of Sir George Macfarren. There is a tradition that the part of Anna (erroneously called Belinda), written for an alto voice, was sung by the composer himself. Should this story be veri- fied, it will tell strongly in favour of the opinion that Purcell really did compose Dido and jEneas at the age of seventeen, i.e., in 1675 ; for it is certain that at the corona- tion of James II. he sang bass. In 1682 Purcell was appointed organist of the chapel- royal, vice Edmund Lowe deceased, an office which he was able to hold conjointly with his appointment at West- minster Abbey. For some years after this his pen was busily employed in the production of sacred music, odes addressed to the king and royal family, and other similar works. In 1685 he wrote two of his finest anthems, "I was glad " and " My heart is inditing," for the coronation of James II. In 1687 he resumed his connexion with the theatre by furnishing the music for Dryden's tragedy Tyrannic Love. It is probable that the public were not at this time prepared for works of so advanced a character as Dido and ^Eneas ; for, though the young composer's pen was constantly employed in the production of incidental music, overtures, and act tunes for pieces of the period, we find him attempting no more operas based upon the true principles so cordially accepted on the Continent. In this year also Purcell composed a march and quick-step, which became so popular that Lord Wharton adapted the latter to the fatal verses of Lillibulero ; and in January 1688 he composed his anthem "Blessed are they that fear the Lord," by express command of the king. A few months later he wrote the music for D'Urfey's play, The Fool's Preferment. In 1690 he wrote the songs for Dryden's version of Shakespeare's Tempest, including " Full fathom five " and " Come unto these yellow sands," and the music for Betterton's Prophetess (afterwards called Dioclesian) and Dryden's Amphitryon; and in 1691 he produced his dramatic masterpiece, King Arthur, also written by Dryden, and first published by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1843. But Purcell's greatest work is undoubtedly his Te Deum and Jubilate, written for St Cecilia's Day, 1694, the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniments. In this he pressed forward so far in advance of the age that the work was annually performed at St Paul's Cathedral till 1712, after which it was per- formed alternately with Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate until 1743, when it finally gave place to Handel's 2 Alessandro Scarlatti was one year younger than Purcell, and pro- duced his first opera, L'Onestd nell' amore, in 1680. YY -_ic