PURCELL COLLECTION opera, Albion and Albanius, which was set to music EXTENSIVE LINER NOTES by the Spanish composer Luis Grabu and performed in 1685. Six years later, after the Glorious Revolution had stripped Dryden of the CD1+2 Laureateship, and poverty had forced him once ‘King Arthur’: Purcell’s Music and Dryden’s Play again to write for the public stage, he dusted off John Dryden called King Arthur ‘A dramatick the old play, altered its original political message, opera’, a proud and idiosyncratic subtitle which and sent it to Purcell, whose music he had come to has caused much confusion. It has been said admire, especially the brilliantly successful semi‐ unfairly that this work is neither dramatic nor an opera Dioclesian (1690). opera. To be sure it is not like a real opera, nor could it be easily turned into one. King Arthur is How much revision the play required is unknown, very much a play, a tragi‐comedy which happens to since the original version does not survive, but include some exceptionally fine music. During the Dryden implies major surgery: ‘… not to offend the Restoration, the term ‘opera’ was used to describe present Times, nor a Government which has any stage work with elaborate scenic effects, and hitherto protected me, I have been oblig’d…to did not necessarily mean an all‐sung music drama. alter the first Design, and take away so many The original 1691 production of King Arthur, Beauties from the Writing’. Besides trimming for though it included flying chariots and trap‐door political reasons, he also had to satisfy his new effects, was modest compared to other similar collaborator: ‘the Numbers of Poetry and Vocal works. More importantly, the music was less Musick, are sometimes so contrary, that in many grandiose and on a smaller, more intimate scale places I have been oblig’d to cramp my Verses and than that for Dioclesian or The Fairy‐Queen. In fact make them rugged to the Reader, that they may be Purcell got by with just two or three solo singers: harmonious to the Hearer’. Dryden hoped that the the baritone John Bowman and soprano Charlotte audience would be able to distinguish between Butler doubled up on several roles each. And the those songs which follow ‘the Rules of Poetry, in orchestra did not include kettledrums, which the Sound and Cadence of the Words’ and those ‘in usually signal bigness and ostentation in Purcell. which I have comply’d with him’, the composer. Purcell went even further: while composing, he So what exactly did Dryden mean by ‘dramatick’? occasionally changed Dryden’s words to suit his ear King Arthur is not like Purcell’s other semi‐operas, or to clarify meaning, and liberally interpreted the all of which were adaptations of plays with music stage directions. This quickly became Purcell’s fitted in or grafted on, more or less skilfully. show, a fact which the poet conceded, though a Dryden conceived King Arthur as a play ‘adorned’ little sarcastically: ‘because these sorts of with Scenes, Machines, Songs and Dances’. Thus Entertainments are principally design’d for the Ear the music was meant to be integral to the plot and and Eye, my Art, on this occasion, ought to be not merely incidental. The main characters – subservient to his’. Incidentally, this sentence puns Arthur, Oswald, Merlin, Emmeline and the others – on Art(hur) and gives added meaning to lines such participate in the musical scenes, though, like all as ‘Art shall meet Art’, found throughout the play; protagonists in semi‐opera, never sing themselves. King Arthur must find himself as well as secure his Two characters, the rival spirits Philidel and country’s destiny. Grimbald, are pivotal, since they sing and speak; Dryden modelled them closely on Ariel and Caliban The plot is drawn vaguely from Geoffrey of in The Tempest. Monmouth’s 12th‐century Historia Regum Britanniae and other sources of Arthurian legend, King Arthur’s gestation was long and complicated, but it is essentially Dryden’s own creation and and Purcell only became involved at a late stage. therefore a disappointment to audiences expecting Dryden wrote the play in 1684 in anticipation of Camelot, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round the celebration of the silver jubilee of King Charles Table. Arthur and the Britons fight Oswald and the II. As Poet Laureate, he was expected to provide Saxons to establish a United Kingdom. Most of the royalist ceremonial works of this sort. The play action concerns Arthur’s attempts (assisted by originally had a sung prologue, which was an Merlin, a familiar character) to free his beloved allegorical enactment of the circumstances Emmeline from the clutches of Oswald and his evil surrounding the Restoration of the Stuart magician Osmond. The play is inherently patriotic, monarchy. But the King specifically requested a but one is immediately struck by the coarse, even French‐style opera, so Dryden had to abandon King obscene, humour, the mixture of sentiment, magic, Arthur and expand its prologue into his full‐length slapstick and spectacle – all remarkably similar to a

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modern English pantomime. The play also explores The next musical scene in Act II is a moment of awakening sexuality and the loss of innocence. repose, the calm before the storm of Emmeline’s Emmeline and her attendant Matilda converse in abduction. ‘How blest are shepherds’ is pure witty and often lewd doubles entendres, for pastoral, dripping with nostalgia which Dryden Emmeline very much un‐entendre, but not for the then undercuts in the following piece, ‘Shepherd, attendant: commenting on her mistress’s notion of shepherd, leave decoying’. The lasses remind their an after‐life, Matilda says, ‘I have heard something, swains of the consequences of sexual intercourse how two Bodies meet, / But how Souls joyn, I know and force them to sign marriage vows, because ‘a not’. The central episode of the play is Oswald’s little after toying, women have the shot to pay’. abduction of Emmeline and his attempted rape of her, which tends to vitiate the high‐minded The plot thickens in Act III. In a mysterious and patriotic tone. obviously symbolic episode, Philidel restores Emmeline’s sight by instilling magic drops into her Although Dryden yielded centrestage to Purcell, all eyes. She can now see not only the evil face of her the music is at the service of the play. Each of the captor and would‐be rapist Osmond, but can also six separate musical scenes centres on some visible vainly admire her own beauty and disparage stage action or is a manifestation of leading and Matilda’s plainness. Dryden wrote several lyrics for following, or leading and misleading, devices which this scene, but no music survives; either it is lost or the Dryden scholar James Winn has identified as Purcell never provided any. The heroine curtly the key to understanding what the poet meant by refuses the advances of Osmond, who, frustrated, ‘dramatick opera’. The blind Emmeline is literally demonstrates his magical powers by showing her led through the story, even after her sight is ‘a Prospect of Winter in Frozen Countries’. The restored in Act III. The importance of movement famous Frost Scene is thus an allegorical and the use of physical space are paramount for expression of Emmeline’s supposed sexual frigidity, the music of King Arthur. though this music is also essentially physical. Cupid descends in a chariot and the Cold Genius rises The first musical scene (in Act I) is the heathen through a trap door. His aria, ‘What power art sacrifice offered by the Saxons on the eve of battle; thou?’, one of Purcell’s greatest pieces, is the ‘foolish’ victims are led in and out. Purcell extremely chromatic, with some chord constructed this, exactly like a verse anthem, with progressions that foreshadow those of a century solemn choral responses interspersed between later. The composer underscored the string and solo incantations which lead to longer, more voice parts with wavy lines whose exact meaning is developed choruses. After a battle is heard unknown. On this recording they are interpreted as offstage ‘with Drums, Trumpets, and Military a series of pulsed trills, or ‘shakes’ (to use the apt Shouts and Excursions’, the Britons sing the contemporaneous term for this ornament). In a taunting air and chorus ‘Come if you dare’, our mid 18th‐century revival of King Arthur, the singers trumpets sound’. Handel later imitated Purcell’s and dancers appeared in this scene in gloves and vivid treatment of ‘the double, double, double beat woolies caked with icicles, rubbing their hands and of the thundering drum’ in his setting of the similar chattering with cold ‐ effects which the music line from Dryden’s 1687 St. Cecilia’s Day Ode. But would seem to render entirely superfluous. unlike Handel, Purcell eschews the drum itself in Supposedly inspired by the shivering chorus in his scoring. Lully’s opera Isis (1677), one of the French composer’s most popular pieces, Purcell’s daring The Second Act opens with the Britons in hot harmonic technique and intensity of expression are pursuit of the routed Saxons, whose earthy spirit on a completely different scale. Grimbald (the Caliban figure) misdirects the attackers into perilous rivers and ‘dreadful The Fourth Act concentrates on Arthur’s attempts downfalls’. In the remarkably athletic song and to rescue Emmeline, which are repeatedly double chorus, ‘Hither this way’, Philidel and his thwarted by Saxon magic. His first trial is presented followers try to redirect Arthur’s soldiers to safety by naked river nymphs, whose duet, ‘Two while Grimbald’s evil crew pull in the opposite daughters of this aged stream are we’, is direction. Purcell evidently relied on the staging to alarmlingly seductive, thereby cleverly defeating its mark the true path, since there is nothing in the own purpose: Purcell’s high suspensions are siren music to reveal which chorus is the cheat. voices in more than one sense. The centrepiece of the act and, indeed, the centre of gravity of the whole opera, is the great Passacaglia, ‘How happy the lover’. This is sung by sylvan and wood nymphs

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who would lure Arthur to his death in the whom he despised. Others see this as simply a enchanted forest. It is probably Purcell’s longest, glorified Lord Mayor’s show, whose underlying single movement ‐ a four‐bar ground bass logic and integrity are provided by the music itself. repeated 59 times with ingenious and increasingly Thus one finds Venus’s sublime song ‘Fairest isle’, complex variations ‐ a succession of solos, duets, with its noble melody supported by richly trios, choruses and instrumental interludes danced dissonant harmony, preceded by the boisterous, throughout. The Passacaglia far exceeds Dryden’s show‐stopping appearance of Comus and his modest stage direction for a ‘Song to a Minuet’ and revellers singing ‘Your hay it is mow’d’, a rough‐ was clearly influenced by the chaconnes in Lully’s hewn folksong with incongruously elegant tragédies en musique. The ending might seem harmonization. abrupt and rather too quiet for so monumental a piece, but Purcell knew when to get out of the way Purcell’s autograph score of King Arthur does not and let the play continue. survive, and no single source includes all the available music, which has been pieced together In Act V Arthur and Oswald decide to settle their from several manuscripts, none of them closely differences in a single combat. Dryden’s stage related to the 1691 premiere. Therefore it is direction is unusually explicit and gives a further impossible to tell if some music may have been lost idea of just how physical a production this was: (for instance, from the scene in which Emmeline’s They Fight with Spunges in their Hands dipt in sight is restored), or whether Purcell omitted to set Blood; after some equal Passes and Closeing, they these and other lines. King Arthur was by far his appear both Wounded: Arthur Stumbles among most successful stage work, and it was revived the Trees, Oswald falls over him, they both Rise; several times during his lifetime, repeatedly in the Arthur Wounds him again, then Oswald Retreats. two decades after his death, and sporadically Enter Osmond from among the Trees, and with his throughout the 18th century. Garrick’s 1770 Wand, strikes Arthur’s Sword out of his Hand, and production included additional music by Thomas Exit. Oswald pursues Arthur. Merlin enters, and Arne, and the fifth‐act masque was especially gives Arthur his Sword, and Exit, they close, and susceptible to alteration. The setting of the Arthur in the fall, disarms Oswald. penultimate verse, ‘Saint George, the patron of our isle’, which is included on this recording, has long There follows a miscellaneous pageant in been regarded as spurious, a later substitution. celebration of Arthur’s victory, British unity and, as Arguing against its authenticity are the two Merlin says, ‘what rolling Ages shall produce’. This obbligato trumpets, which Purcell used in no other final masque begins with a violent tempest at sea, piece, the rather meandering ground bass, one or which quickly abates as the bass, Aeolus, rises two rough patches of harmony and a generally stratospherically to high G, before descending two static quality. But the genuine final chorus, ‘Our full octaves. This is one of the wildest and shortest natives not alone appear’, in which Dryden takes a storms in music. backhanded swipe at King William (‘foreign kings adopted here, their crowns at home despise’), also But then Dryden begins to loosen the reins on the includes some musical solecisms, such as parallel drama. The key characters Philidel and Grimbald fifths and ‘backwards’ harmonic progressions. do not reappear in Act V, the sort of gaff rarely Perhaps Purcell was making a musical joke, too committed by a playwright of his experience. subtle for us now fully to appreciate. The listener Britannia rises slowly on her island, ‘with can judge whether ‘Saint George’ is the work of an Fishermen at her Feet’. In an early manuscript (but inferior, later, composer, or whether this is Purcell not Purcell’s original, which does not survive) the being deliberately incompetent. majestic symphony accompanying Britannia’s ascent is scored for three violins and bass. The top The final chorus contrasts sharply with the quality part is, however, playable on natural trumpet, and of the rest of King Arthur. Purcell plays to the the mixed scoring for trumpet, violin and oboe gallery but never cheapens his art. The music is heard on this recording sounds suitably idiomatic. exquisitely detailed and carefully worked. Its Britannia is entertained by a series of pieces in genius is that the chamber‐like sophistication praise of her country’s natural resources and somehow comes across the footlights, humanizing market economy. Scholars have spilt much ink these emblematic characters and turning stage trying to explain what Dryden really intended here. gimmicks into icons. Perhaps Dryden was right Some have read in this final masque an ironic, after all: King Arthur is a ‘dramatick’ opera. uncomplimentary political message, since Dryden is forced to praise King William III, a foreigner © 1992 Prof. Curtis Price

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CD3+4 Following his death, Purcell's work was not The Fairy Queen forgotten, which was quite unusual for the era, and During his lifetime, Henry Purcell was recognised for many years his music remained popular with as an exceptionally gifted composer by colleagues, audiences and publishers. For example, in 1698 audiences and royalty alike. Despite living to the Henry Playford printed the first part of Orpheus age of just 36, only a year older than Mozart when Britannicus (the second part was published two he died, this English composer excelled in every years later), an extensive collection of the field, and had few rivals that could match his composer's most well‐known melodies. New musical skill. Born in Westminster (which at the editions continued to be published up until 1721, time did not yet belong to the nearby City of demonstrating Purcell's continuing fame for many London) in the year 1659, Purcell began his musical years after his death. education during his childhood as a choirboy at the Chapel Royal, becoming assistant to the Keeper of Purcell lived through a unique era of English the King's Instruments in 1673 following the history, born one year prior to the Restoration of gradual breaking of his voice, and leaving in the the monarchy, which succeeded the severe same year to become organ tuner at Westminster Commonwealth republic led by Oliver Cromwell Abbey. In 1677, at the age of 18, he was appointed between 1649 and 1660. During his lifetime, music Composer in Ordinary of the Violins, the string gained a new significance, influenced by royal ensemble founded by King Charles 11 of England patronage, the birth of the public concert, music an imitation of the 24 Violons du Roy of the theatre's increasing popularity with audiences and Versailles court. the return of the Anglican Church to a position of importance. Purcell was the prime representative In 1679, Purcell became organist at Westminster of a generation of important English composers, Abbey, succeeding John Blow. Two years later he among them Mathew Locke (1630‐1677), John married Frances Peters, and in 1682 he became Blow (1649‐1708) and John Eccles (1668‐1735). one of the three organists at the Chapel Royal. By However, England also continued to import this point in his career, he had not only made a musicians from the Continent (especially from Italy name for himself as an experienced instrumentalist and Germany). This would later have a negative but also as a composer, having published short effect on the development of an individual national solo vocal compositions and collections of songs style, even more so when George Frideric Handel from 1675 onwards. A first complete anthology of arrived in 1711, throwing aside the entire instrumental compositions, Fantasias for Strings, competition in one blow and establishing a series and the first of his 24 Odes for official occasions of formal and stylistic models that were gradually appeared in 1680, and in the same year Purcell adopted by English composers. Unfortunately, by also began writing for the theatre, composing the this time there were no musicians in England with music to Nathaniel Lee's drama Theodosius. the stature or skill of Purcell to prove a worthy Subsequently, during an estimated period of 15 competitor to this new arrival. years, Purcell composed theatre music to approximate 40 plays, 5 operas with dialogue (or A work by Mathew Locke, The Siege of Rhodes, is semi‐operas) and his great masterpiece Dido & regarded as the first English opera: a collaboration Aeneas (1689), an opera in three acts. of several composers including Henry Lawes (writer of two acts) and Thomas Cooke, who was a In 1683, Purcell finally became Chief Keeper of the great admirer of the Italian style. Although the King's Instruments and two years later he entered opera is sadly lost, we know that the text was sung the service of the new king, James II, as chamber‐ and presented according to this Italian style, harpsichordist. In the following years he was somewhat like a recital, at its first performance in largely occupied with writing court. and theatre 1656. After Cromwell's death in 1658, theatre life compositions. In the autumn of 1695, at the climax began to return to normality, and a new, of his success, he suddenly became ill and died on specifically English form of theatre started to 21 November, the evening before the day of St emerge from the 1670s onwards, later referred to Cecilia, a celebration that he had often as semi‐opera, which drew on both French and embellished with his music. The Chapter of Italian influences. Westminster approved his burial in the Abbey, at the foot of the organ that he had played for years. Jean‐Baptiste Lully's French operas, which rejected His tombstone can be viewed to this day. the Italian style as unnatural and unsuitable for the French language, were famous in England for their brilliance and extravagance. Matthew Locke's

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semi‐opera Psyche (1675), with a contribution by Shakespeare's verses in The Fairy Queen, a decision Giovanni Battista Draghi for the dance, was that was probably influenced by the different undoubtedly inspired by Lullly's 1671 work of the tastes of audiences for Shakespeare's plays and same title; Locke's offering was, however, met with musical theatre; in The Fairy Queen, the magical subdued enthusiasm by the London audience and atmosphere of A Midsummer Night's Dream is the enormous construction costs of the theatre reduced to a sequence of jokes and embarrassing machinery were only partly covered. However, the situations between human and enchanted beings. path had now been cleared for semiopera, to Furthermore, the characters were drastically which Purcell made a significant contribution with altered: Hippolyta, for example, is omitted from five pieces (Dioclesian, 1690; King Arthur, 1691; the plot, while Duke Theseus only makes an The Fairy Queen, 1692; Indian Queen, 1695; The appearance at the end of the third act. Instead, the Tempest, 1695). This remained a popular form of librettist added four extensive musical scenes to theatre in England, before Handel's arrival led to the end of the second, third, fourth and fifth acts, Italian opera superseding it as the primary genre. which Purcell set to music. For the revival in 1693, further musical pieces were added to the end of Musical theatre performances in Purcell's era were the first act, so that every act ended with music. characterised by spectacular productions involving elaborate staging and machinery, influenced by The masques that conclude each act of The Fairy both Italian opera, particularly works originating in Queen can be regarded as one of the peaks of Venice, and Lully's Tragédie en musique. Purcell's Purcell's achievements, a glorification of magic, first three semi‐operas, including The Fairy Queen, employing elaborate stage effects and machinery. were written for the new Dorset Garden Theatre in With the exception of the duets between Oberon London, which opened in 1671 on the initiative of and Titania and the chorus of fairies, these the impresario William Davenant, although he died compositions are not directly linked to one year earlier. The Fairy Queen was staged for Shakespeare's plot and text. They are 'festive‐ the first time in the spring of 1692, and was revised merry interludes, which reflect the suggestions of the following year with several additions and the piece and symbolic figures such as the night, changes by the composer. Despite its great winter and sleep. The themes of Masques (love, success, it soon vanished from the repertoire due fairytale, magic, humour) are nothing more than an to the unexpected disappearance of its score. In independent, elucidating rendition of the 1701, six years after Purcell's death, a notice even fundamental elements of the piece' (Paolo da Col). appeared in the London Gazette, promising a From a musical point of view, Purcell uses a broad reward of 20 guineas to anyone able to recover the palette of forms and styles in the The Fairy Queen ‐ score. However, the music was only found 200 as well as in the other semi‐operas ‐ meandering years later in the library of the Royal Academy of freely from a richly embellished virtuoso aria in the Music; the first modern edition was published in Italian style to dances of pure French origin, from a 1903. lament reminiscent of Monteverdi and Cavalli (and his own from Dido & Aeneas) to a richly Semi‐operas occasionally drew on existing pieces contrapuntal chorus of unmistakably English of English theatre repertoire, but with drastic cuts influence. The Fairy Queen shows how successfully in the spoken parts. Individual acts would Purcell integrated the Italian and French styles sometimes conclude with a lengthy section of within his own personal language, and it comes as music, with no spoken dialogue at all. In the case of no surprise that more than 30 years after the The Fairy Queen, the work as a whole lasts for premiere of the work, a song from the third act, 'If around four hours, of which Purcell's music makes love is a sweet passion', was used by Gay and up for about two and a half. As in another of Pepusch in The Beggar's Opera (1728). In the Purcell's semi‐operas The Tempest, The Fairy dedication of Purcell's semi‐opera Dioclesian Queen is based on a text by William Shakespeare, (1690), John Dryden remarked, presumably also with the anonymous libretto a free adaptation of A representing the composer's opinion, that 'poetry Midsummer Night's Dream. The librettist (thought and art have already reached perfection in our by some researchers to be Elkanah Settle, to others country, while music, still in its youth (... ), is the impresario and actor Thomas Betterton) learning Italian, which is its best teacher, and is drastically shortened the piece to just under 1400 also studying a little French aura, from which it can verses (in Shakespeare's original there are 2174, acquire lightness and freshness. As we are further plus 441 lines of prose), and added 250 new verses away from the sun than our neighbouring that Purcell set to music. In actual fact, the countries, ripeness comes a little later and we have composer did not set to music a single one of to accept that we will only gradually lose our

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barbarism'. Sadly Purcell, the only composer who Act 5 could accelerate this maturing process, died only Theseus gives his consent to the marriages of few years after completing The Fairy Queen. With Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. Handel's arrival in 1721, English music took a new His sceptical reaction to their tales of that night's direction, one that an objective onlooker at the strange experiences is an excuse to introduce the end of the 17th century would have been unlikely most extravagant of all five tableaux. In order to to predict. prove to Theseus that much stranger things happen than his disbelieving nature is willing to Danilo Prefumo admit, Oberon displays the full extent of his magic Translation: Alan Bagge powers: Juno appears in a heavenly chariot drawn by peacocks, a paradisiacal Chinese garden (a real Synopsis Garden of Eden) is created and finally even Hymen Act 1 with his torch is seen. The spectacle ends with a Titania orders the fairies to entertain her Indian grand ballet and a chorus of joy. page and to blindfold, spin and pinch any mortal who should disturb their sport until such time as he confesses his sins. Victims are soon found; the CD5 fairies lead in three drunken poets and make merry Purcell and Galliard at their expense, relenting only when one of the Pan and Syrinx, a through‐sung, one‐act English three, blindfolded and stuttering, confesses that he opera to an original text by Lewis Theobald and set is drunk and a wretched, execrable poet. to music John Ernst Galliard, was premiered in Lincoln’s Inns Fields Theatre in 1718. It was not Act 2 Galliard’s first attempt to break into the London Titania and Oberon quarrel, then Titania changes opera scene, which at the time was dominated by the forest into a fairyland with trees in blossom Italian opera, with an English‐language work, but it and picturesque grottos. The fairies entertain their was one of his most successful. It was given queen with songs and dances until Titania asks numerous performances, including one attended them to sing her a lullaby: immediately, four by the Prince of Wales and his consort, and was allegorical figures ‐ Night, Mistery, Secrecy and revived in 1726. It tells the tale of the woodland Sleep approach to do her bidding. While the god Pan, who falls for Syrinx, a cold‐hearted followers of Night dance around Titania, Oberon nymph devoted to the virgin Goddess Diana. sprinkles juice from a magic flower into her eyes. Driven mad by desire, he attempts to ravish her and she flees him, begging the gods to help her. Act 3 Just as his prize is within his grasp, she is Titania has fallen in love with the ass‐headed miraculously transformed into a bunch of reeds, Bottom. To charm him, she transforms the scene from which the panpipe is made, a flute to sing her into a great forest: fauns, dryads and fairies dance eternal praise and lament her needless death. The and sing about love until four green savages come history of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is much more and drive them away with an uproarious dance. clouded than that of Pan and Syrinx, leaving ample Then the shepherd Coridon enters ‐ he would like room for speculation and controversy. The first to steal a kiss from his escort Mopsa. A nymph's performance we know about was one in a chic song and haymakers' dance conclude the girls’ school in Chelsea in 1689, but it is currently entertainments. generally accepted that the work must have been written for and premiered much earlier, and at Act 4 court. It tells the tale of the widowed Carthaginian After Titania and Bottom have fallen asleep, the Queen Dido and her doomed love for the action follows Shakespeare's third act, with wandering Aeneas, who, driven from Troy, dallies confusion between two couples ‐ Hermia and with Dido on his way to found Rome. The Lysander, Helena and Demetrius ‐ who also fall inevitable tragedy of her abandonment and death asleep. Oberon wakes Titania and Bottom from is given a non‐Virgilian twist by the librettist Tate’s their enchantment and asks Titania for music; she addition of a coven of witches led by a malevolent readily accedes and the scene changes once again Sorceress, who plot the destruction of the lovers into a garden of fountains with the sun rising over by magical means. Here it is not so much the it, a celebration of Oberon's birthday. Phoebus conflict between love and duty that brings on appears on a cloud and greets the new day. The disaster: in this version of the tale Evil, not Love, four Seasons enter and conclude the magnificent conquers all. spectacle with songs and dances. Purcell Collection 6

Galliard’s sunny Pan and Syrinx is a perfect foil to anaesthetic qualities that any who have felt Purcell’s dark masterpiece, for both operas treat Cupid’s wounds will appreciate. Perhaps – who the theme of love’s destructive power from knows? – like Alice in Wonderland, nibbling from completely different angles: if Purcell’s treatment the right hand and the left of the caterpillar’s is tragic, Galliard’s is comic. In Pan and Syrinx, not mushroom to achieve the correct height – only the wooings of the transvestite Nymph by her shrinking from the right hand and growing from amorous but dim‐witted Sylvan (‘Let Nature the left hand bits – so too can we, drinking deep henceforward neglect’), but also the sufferings of draughts of Love’s pleasures alternated with the main characters themselves are treated with a oblivious sips from the forgetful grape, find light touch. While Dido is a tragedy with one comic happiness at last? scene (the scene starting with the Sailor’s ‘Come away’), Pan is a comedy with one tragic moment of Jed Wentz breathtaking beauty (Pan’s lament ‘Surprising Change!’); the motto of Dido and Aeneas, the magnificent chorus ‘Great minds against CD6 themselves conspire’ is treated with Baroque The golden age of the verse anthem dignity and pomp, whereas the moral of Pan and The Christian martyr Cecilia was executed, Syrinx, Diana’s aria ‘Lawless rage and wild desire probably, in Sicily during the reign of the Emperor do the lover's name disgrace’ is treated with Marcus Aurelius, between 176 and 180 AD. It is Gallant grace and charm. Our sympathies, so part of her legend that she died singing the praises formed by 19th‐century standards of the sublime of God, and this melodious expiry has made her and beautiful, reject the idea that charming, ever since the patron saint of musicians. Her feast graceful music can be great, and are sadly day, 22 November, has long been the occasion for unfavourable towards the aesthetic behind concerts and musical festivals. Galliard’s opera. Its critics shall grumble: ‘Yes it is lovely, but is that enough? Must it not also be In 1682 the ‘Musical Society’, a group of musicians deep, difficult and perhaps even a little dull, to be and amateurs including the publisher John worthy of our attention?’ To which its exponents Playford, initiated a specifically British annual shall reply: ‘Why should the aesthetic of the late‐ celebration of St Cecilia’s Day, making use of Baroque and Gallant not be accepted on its own singers from Westminster Abbey Choir, St. Paul’s terms? Perhaps one day we will allow Joy back Cathedral and the Chapel Royal, along with among the Muses, and Delight a place on musicians from the King’s band and from the Parnassus?’ London theatres. In 1683 they commissioned a large‐scale Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, Welcome All The performances here attempt to present Dido the Pleasures, from Henry Purcell, already and Aeneas in as early a form as possible – recognized as the leading composer of his times. ‘authentic’! – by taking the 1689 libretto as a Laid out on a grand scale, it was the model for guide, and Pan and Syrinx in as late a version – further odes produced in the following years by ‘improved’! – by using the 1726 revival music such composers as John Blow, John Eccles and throughout. In order to ‘complete’ Dido I have Jeremiah Clarke – and, in 1687, the London‐ chosen music from Purcell’s vast treasure‐house of domiciled Italian Giovanni Batista Draghi, whose incidental theatre music: the result is a recording in tentative use of trumpets and drums and a larger which several dances and one chorus (tracks 7, 20, body of strings seems to have impressed Purcell. 21 and 30) mentioned in the libretto but not extant in the surviving scores are ‘filled in’ using Purcell’s In 1692 Purcell himself, commissioned by the own music (only the guitar improvisations are not ‘Gentleman Lovers of Musick’, agreed to write a by the master himself). In the Galliard, the copious second ‘Saint Cecilia Ode’. This, Hail! Bright Cecilia, revisions made by the composer to Pan and Syrinx is one of his most ambitious compositions. Based for the 1726 revival have all been incorporated into upon a specially‐written poem by the Reverend our performing score. And last but not least, the Nicholas Brady that praises Cecilia, the art of charming Masque of Cupid and Bacchus from The music, the various instruments, and traces their Tragedy of Timon of Athens offers a viable solution origin to the woodlands from whose trees so many to the philosophical love‐conundrums posed by of them were fashioned, the work uses soloists, both Dido and Pan. A light‐hearted comparison of chorus and orchestra with a breadth and freedom the joys of love and drunkenness, it proposes a co‐ and inventiveness that would not be rivalled until operative compromise: if wine cannot supply us Handel began composing his English oratorios a with the ecstasies of love, it at least has generation later. Purcell Collection 7

Unlike most of Purcell’s other odes, Hail! Bright The next five movements are devoted, in Brady’s Cecilia seems to have been intended from the first text, to proving the superiority of the organ to all for a large group of performers. The majestic other earthly instruments: or rather this introduction to the ‘Symphony’ (overture), with its superiority is asserted in ‘With that Sublime trumpets and drums, followed by a theme that Celestial Lay’, and the claims of other instruments Handel seems to have remembered when he are dismissed in the four following movements. As composed the Water Music, immediately the text reminds us, the organ is the instrument of establishes the scale of the work that is to follow. St. Cecilia, who is usually depicted with a portative Alternate slow and fast sections, contrasting organ in medieval and renaissance art. Three pathos and vitality, and a passage of incisive singers sing the praise of the organ, and in the fanfare, build up into one of the most elaborate second half of the movement Purcell suggests the orchestral movements of its period. Solo bass and delicate tones of the organ‐pipes. The claims of the chorus then sing the opening salutation in praise of lute are casually denied in ‘Wondrous Machine!’, St Cecilia, and throughout this first vocal an impressive aria for the bass (again over a movement massed effects alternate with solo ground bass) in the unexpected key of E Minor. voices and a few instruments, while touches of This is an essay in the then‐modern ca capo form, fugue evoke the Saint’s ‘celestial art’. with the opening words and music returning towards the end. ‘The Airy Violin’ is an aria for high ‘Hark Each Tree’ is the first of three movements tenor, accompanied appropriately enough by that Purcell builds over a ground (a repeated violins – Purcell, also appropriately, keeps the pattern in the bass). Above this the music takes textures light and airy – though the words are all shape as a soprano and bass voice. The text is about the instrument’s limitations. Brady’s about the creation of the flutes and the violins, so criticism of the flutes in ‘In Vain the Am’rous Flute’ the instrumental writing is a duet between flutes inspires a lament for tenor and tenor constructed (or in Purcell’s time recorders), and violins. There is over a descending chromatic ground bass whose some beautiful chromatic word‐painting at points first six bars closely resemble those of the great in this movement, and a floridly ecstatic setting of lament in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. ‘The Fife and the word ‘rejoice’. The spectacularly‐decorated all the Harmony of War’ is evoked in a brilliant solo ‘’Tis Nature’s voice’ is traditionally thought to tenor aria with bravura supporting parts for have been sung by Purcell himself, though this idea trumpets and kettledrums. In ‘Let these amongst is almost certainly based on a misreading of a themselves contest’ Purcell depicts the report of the first performance printed in instruments’ contention with an imitative duet for November 1692. Purcell was a bass, while the air is two basses. The work ends with the grandest for a high voice (it is usually given to a high tenor chorus of all. This begins, as did the first chorus, or tenor), and in any case Purcell was probably with the words ‘Hail! Bright Cecilia’, and it recalls playing the organ, not singing. The misunderstood the music of that chorus as well, but develops and phrase ‘sung with incredible Graces by Mr. Purcell improves upon it – in fact the words ‘Thou dost thy himself’ surely means that the singer did not former skill improve’ bring forth an elaborate improvise his ornamentation but used the passage of six‐voice double counterpoint, showing intricate) decoration that Purcell had specially Purcell at the height of his powers. The movement written for him. provides a fitting conclusion to perhaps the grandest and most brilliant work for chorus and The highly evocative chorus ‘Soul of the world’, orchestra that had yet been written in England. which follows, is full of brilliant wordpainting. ‘The jarring seeds of matter’ are depicted with pungent The two anthems on this disc typify Purcell’s early dissonance, while the ‘scattered atoms’ are and late styles. My beloved spake is believed to be melodic fragments bound together over a ground one of his earliest anthems, from the 1670s. A bass. This movement is conceived on a grand scale, colourful and animated piece, it takes its text from full of imitation and varied in texture, the chorus The Song of Solomon, and contains a good deal of uniting in homophonic writing on the words ‘One graphic wordpainting. Notice, for instance, the Perfect Harmony’. Next ‘Thou Tun’st this World’ grave minor‐key atmosphere of ‘For lo, the winter presents a delicate minuet (over a ground bass) in is past’, and the contrast with the major‐key rising three different forms. First it appears as the figure at ‘The flow’rs appear’. Eleven years introduction to the movement, scored for oboes separates this piece from one of Purcell’s and continuo; then it becomes a soprano aria; and acknowledged masterpieces in the genre, O Sing finally it is a chorus. Unto The Lord, composed in 1688 for Whitehall Chapel and taking a text from Psalm 96. For the

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past few years Purcell’s works in this genre had introspective text; in setting it, Purcell employed a been verse anthems, in sections that alternated device he rarely used in a sacred context – solo voices and chorus, with string underpinning its intricate and fluctuating vocal line accompaniment. This is one of Purcell’s most with an unvarying foursquare ground bass. Italianate verse‐anthems, interweaving voices and instruments with great magnificence; it contains The majority of the poems are penitential – impressive solo and ensemble numbers as well as offering Purcell plenty of opportunities for the employing dynamic antiphony between voices. In chromatic lines and dissonant harmonies at which ‘The Lord is great’ he creates an exquisite duet he excelled – though they invariably turn from over a ground bass, and the crown of the work is a contemplating man’s sin to seeking or celebrating glorious and highly contrapuntal ‘Alleluia’. God’s mercy. Both ‘Lord, I can suffer thy rebukes’ and ‘Plung’d in the confines of despair’ explore © Malcolm MacDonald, 2010 such a formula; Purcell varied his treatment of it with a lyrical interlude in ‘Lord, what is man’, and with touches of vocal drama in ‘With sick and CD7 famish’d eyes’ and ‘In the black dismal dungeon of Purcell: Harmonia Sacra despair’. Purcell’s genius found its chief outlet in vocal composition. His skill at capturing in music both More unusally, the text of ‘O, I’m sick of life’ rails at the energy and the subtlest inflections of his native a cruel avenging deity; the vocal textures of the tongue led to his being dubbed ‘the British setting recall, with delicate irony, those found in Orpheus’ – the title (in Latin, ironically) of the Purcell’s verse anthems. ‘The earth trembled’ publisher John Playford’s hugely popular memorial depicts not only the earthquake but the whole collection of Purcell’s vocal works. Orpheus catalogue of unnatural portents which Britannicus, however, was exclusively secular. accompanied Christ’s death on the cross. The Music‐lovers were, and still are, less familiar with Passion is the subject matter also of ‘My opening his superb sacred songs. Although some of these eyes are purged’, whose anonymous composer had appeared in Playford’s anthology Harmonia rivalled Purcell in imaginative detail, though not in Sacra, published in 1688 and 1693, others his sense of purely musical direction. ‘Awake, ye remained in manuscript, known only to musical dead’ has an extrovert character rare among and literary connoisseurs. Purcell’s sacred songs, and equips the performers – not least the continuo team – with powerful But it was probably for the discriminating minority musical imagery to summon up another and that Purcell composed them. Their texts, unlike greater earthquake, this one accompanied by those of his secular songs, reveal a most fastidious trumpet calls: the Last Judgement. literary taste. It may be that some discerning friend of his in the court circle drew his attention to But most arresting of all is Saul and the Witch of them, for they include works by the Metaphysical Endor (‘In guilty night’). Its anonymous text – an poets of the first half of the century – no longer enthralling paraphrase of the biblical story fashionable in Purcell’s day – as well as by divines recounting how the beleaguered Saul sought a and professional writers among his conjuration of the spirit of Samuel – had been set contemporaries. He treated these sacred poems by other composers before Purcell, but none of with unwonted respect, allowing himself none of them matched his sheer theatricality. The three the small alterations which he often made, for voices represent the characters in a claustrophobic purely musical reasons, when setting secular verse and unnerving drama, combining only in the and even words from the Bible or the Book of narrative introduction and a final chorus of Common Prayer. farewell. What comes between is, in all but name, a miniature opera. The settings are restricted in scoring (one to four voices, accompanied by continuo alone) and also in The sacred songs span Purcell’s entire creative life. style (predominantly declamatory, with lines, But not far removed from them in style is one of rhythms and harmonies which combine to his earliest compositions for the Anglican church, illuminate the words with all Purcell’s matchless the Funeral Sentences. Its text is part of the Burial vividness). But their range of mood is wide. A few Service, which includes seven ‘sentences’ compiled are quietly contemplative, among them ‘Close largely from Holy Writ: three said or sung at the thine eyes’ and ‘O solitude’. The latter is actually a beginning of the service, three more at the secular song, though one with an unusally graveside, and the final one after the interment. Purcell Collection 9

Purcell, most unusually, set only the graveside CD8 sentences – almost certainly to complement a Purcell: Sacred Music setting of the remaining four by another composer. In 1534, under the reign of King Henry VIII, the A possible contender is Henry Cooke, the royal English Church formally broke with the Roman choirmaster at the Restoration in 1660; Purcell’s Catholic congregation. This also had an impact on setting is compatible in key and scoring with that music. In England, the traditional motet on a Latin by Cooke, and it may conceivably have been his text made way for the so‐called ‘anthem’. This new personal tribute at Cooke’s funeral in 1672, when genre, on an English text, was to be practised for a he himself was still a chorister. long period, up to the time of Handel in the 18th century. Its musical language, however, is strongly individual. Purcell illustrates the words with Henry Purcell grew up with the anthems of his uncomfortable vividness, by means of jagged, predecessors William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and angular lines (with sudden low notes on such key Orlando Gibbons. He copied and studied these words as ‘secrets’ and ‘fall’), chafing dissonances composers carefully. When composing anthems (at ‘justly displeased’, for instance), and chromatic himself, he had to search for a new form to please harmony of unforgettable intensity (especially at King Charles II, who was partial to grand settings ‘the bitter pains of eternal death’). In his later for soloists, massive choirs and orchestral teens or early twenties Purcell extensively revised accompaniments. From 1682, the year of his this ’prentice setting, clarifying both structure and appointment as organist at the Royal Chapel, to musical imagery; the revised version was widely 1689, when the English king was forced off the circulated in manuscript, but the autograph fair throne by William III, Purcell wrote about 70 so‐ copy contains further changes, albeit minor ones. called ‘verse anthems’. A feature of the new style The circulated version – newly edited for this, its he introduced was the extensive use of verse first recording – casts valuable light on the musical sections for solo voices. His anthems were thinking of England’s greatest Baroque composer composed in such a manner that performances in his early maturity. both with and without strings were possible, strings only being required when the king was Although Purcell was one of the most brilliant present. The main function of the string orchestra organists of his day, music for his own instrument was to provide an overture and ritornellos. represents only a tiny part of his output: just half a According to the records, many of Purcell’s dozen works, all of them modest in scale. The anthems were sung and played in Westminster Voluntary in C (Z717), indeed, is but a chipping Abbey. Four of the anthems recorded here date from the workshop floor, though an attractive one. from the period 1680–3. One of these, O God, But its cousin in G (Z720) is a more considerable Thou art my God, is a ‘full anthem’, still written in affair, consisting of a grave and pensive opening the traditional polyphonic style, with few moments section, spiced with characteristcally pungent for soloists. This work contrasts heavily with the harmonies, and complemented with a lively and other anthems (Hear my prayer, O Lord, Remember graceful canzona. not, Lord, our offences and Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry?), in which there is room for Purcell’s legacy to harpsichordists is more declamation and personal expression. With substantial: some 60 original pieces, plus various sections for solo voices, duets and antiphonal arrangements of vocal and instrumental settings, this music is more secular, even moving movements from his operas and odes. The Ground towards opera. The verse anthems are also in C Minor is clearly an arrangement, for after a characterized by dramatic, unexpected harmonic simple harmonized statement of the bass the right progressions and, at times, an imaginative hand shifts upwards to play a melodic line which is treatment of the text. 17th‐century listeners must unmistakably vocal in character. The piece is of have been startled by the way Purcell intensified doubtful authenticity (anonymous in two of its four emotions evoked by the text of his music. manuscripts and attributed in the others to William Especially Man that is born of a woman, from Croft), but it has a decidedly Purcellian flavour and Purcell’s Funeral Sentences, must have been very may well belong to a lost ode. impressive to them. The three phrases used in this remarkable anthem originated from the text of the Bruce Wood © 1995 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH funeral Mass. They were traditionally sung or spoken at the open grave of the deceased. The moving words are intensified by the music by way of expressive musical underlinings, such as very Purcell Collection 10

low notes at the words ‘fall’ and ‘secrets’, and an bass line ‐ is the ideal setting for such an enterprise extreme level of dissonance at ‘displeased’. and Purcell took the opportunity many times. Like Chromatic progressions accompany the mourning his religious music, his instrumental music lacks a words ‘the bitter pains of eternal death’. The sense of theatre. In spite of the virtuosity and the emotional depth of this music is typical of the high tempo of the Chaconne it remains an intimate Funeral Sentences as a whole. They were written piece throughout. for the burial of Queen Mary, who had been much loved, and whose death from smallpox in 1694 left Dioclesian is not an opera, but theatre music. This the entire population grief‐stricken. The Te Deum means that the music is heard between or during and Jubilate, composed for the Holy Mass that was scenes and that all the separate numbers don't held on the eve of Saint Cecilia’s Day (22 constitute an ongoing story as in opera. The music November) in 1694, and commissioned by the serves the text. The story, set in the Roman Gentlemen Amateurs of Music, was an even Empire, tells about the prophetess Delphia who greater step towards the secularization of the foretells that the Roman soldier Diocles will anthem. This work, originally scored for trumpets become Emperor. This prophecy becomes reality and strings, is on a liturgical text, but functioned as when Diocles murders Aper, the murderer of the a glorification of the (alleged) patroness of music, Emperor. The struggle for power is complicated by Saint Cecilia. Purcell divided the text into sections personal feelings. Diocles falls in love with Aurelia, and set each of these to music of a very different who previously wanted to marry the man who nature. That the well‐established vocal polyphony avenged the death of the late Emperor; and was no longer suitable for Purcell is already shown Diocles's nephew is also in love with Aurelia. in the opening bars of the Te Deum, in which ‘We praise thee, O God’ is not, as expected, a massive In contrast to the drama of the story, the music is fugue, but an expressive dialogue for solo voices. A quite peaceful. The fragments on this CD are short striking passage is ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’, a silent instrumental interludes (although the complete reflection worked out in the form of an aria. This music also contains vocal sections). In Purcell's section is followed by the chorus ‘Let me never be time, actors did not sing in Dioclesian. As in confounded’, ingeniously illustrated by Purcell with Shakespeare's time, a theatre performance was as a short fugato. Central sections in the Jubilate are much a music performance as a theatrical the duets ‘Serve the Lord with gladness’ and ‘For spectacle. Much of the music for Dioclesian is the Lord is gracious’, which are followed by an heard before the beginning or the play and in the exuberant ‘Glory be to the Father’. Masque in Act V.

Jos van der Zanden Purcell was not the kind of composer who was at his best in one genre and whose pieces in other genres betray that his heart went most out to one CD9 form. He was supremely personal in everything he Purcell: Songs and Instrumental Music wrote. One of the constant features of Purcell's career is his song‐writing. The songs became very popular Emanuel Overbeeke after his death because a huge selection of them was published in 1698 under the title Orpheus Britannicus. These songs are written in Italian CD10‐16 monodic style: a melody with a lot of expressive “…..a great deal of Art mixed with good Air gestures and clearly within a metric pattern and a which is the Perfection of a Master.” bass line. They are also strongly influenced by The death of Henry Purcell on November 21st English church music: modest gestures, with few 1695, the eve of St Cecilia’s Day, at the tragically big jumps and restrained expression. early age at thirty six devastated the musical world of England for which he was “one of the most This restraint is even more crucial in Purcell's celebrated Masters of the Science of Musick in the instrumental music which includes several pieces Kingdom and scarce inferior to any in Europe”. He for harpsichord and string ensembles. The was buried in solemn splendour in Westminster Chaconne in G minor is a perfect demonstration of Abbey to the sound of his own music, composed Purcell's pleasure in harmonic adventures, only eight months previously for the obsequies of especially when a framework has been set which Queen Mary, in a ceremony which was more or allows the composer a great amount of harmonic less a state funeral itself. In his commemorative freedom. The Chaconne ‐ a set of variations on a ode, John Dryden described how like other birds Purcell Collection 11

fall silent and listen to the nightingale “ so ceas’d Locke) and the following year Blow, obviously the rival Crew when Purcell came/ They Sung no impressed by the talents of his young protégé, more, or only Sung his Fame./Struck dumb they all stood aside to allow Purcell to become organist at admir’d the God‐like Man” and had his Westminster Abbey, a position he held to the end contemporaries been asked to describe the music of his life. they associated with the British Orpheus, the chances are it would have been vocal or dramatic The Sonatas (or both). For in his short and prolific career, By 1683 he had composed several anthems for the Purcell composed more than sixty anthems, twenty Chapel Royal, three royal Welcome Odes and the five Odes and Welcome Songs, over forty five incidental music for Theodosius but his only hymns, psalms and sacred songs, nine secular published compositions were the songs which had cantatas, six operas (or semi ‐operas) of which appeared in various volumes of John Playford’s Dido and Aeneas can lay claim to be the first (and Choice Ayres and Catches. However in May 1883 for a long time, the last) through‐composed opera Playford placed an advertisement in the London in English, incidental music for forty three plays Gazette informing those who had subscribed “ to and over two hundred songs for various the proposal by Mr Henry Purcell for the printing combinations of voices (many collected by his his sonatas of three parts” that the works were widow Frances and published in two volumes now complete and could be collected from a entitled Orpheus Britannicus). It is unlikely number of specified locations including Purcell’s however that many then or indeed today, would own house. The published price was ten shillings, have chosen purely instrumental music since rising to fifteen for non‐subscribers (the equivalent although, as this collection will show, Purcell was a of about £100 today) and such subscription worthy heir to the rich heritage of English schemes were a not uncommon method of keyboard and consort music, musical fashion and assessing potential demand for works before the royal taste steered him towards ceremonial and cost of their printing was incurred: the publication theatrical composition. of the sonatas going ahead shows that there must have been a ready market for them. Although a Purcell was born in 1659 on the eve of the subsequent notice in the Gazette referred to them Restoration which placed Charles II on his throne as “new Musical compositions called Sonatas” and restored music, both sacred and secular, to its suggesting an unfamiliarity with the term, Purcell former place as an accompaniment to public was not the first English composer to write in this ceremony and pleasure. Music was a family form ‐ Henry Butler and William Young had tradition in the Purcell family. Henry followed both preceded him by some thirty years (although both his father and uncle, Henry and Thomas Purcell lived and worked abroad and their works were not (although the records are ambiguous to which was in general circulation in England) and John Jenkins actually which) to become one of the twelve had also produced a set of sonatas in 1660. The choristers in the then recently re‐established handsomely engraved set of parts came complete Chapel Royal where he was taught by Henry Cooke with a portrait of the composer (looking in his full (known from his period as an officer in the Royalist wig rather older than his twenty‐four years) a Army as Captain Cooke) and after Cooke’s death, dedication to Charles II and Preface to the Pelham Humphrey. He left the Chapel in 1673 “ingenious Reader” in which Purcell gives some when his voice broke and became a “keeper, interesting background to the composition of the maker, mender, repayrer and tuner” of the royal sonatas. instrument collection as (unpaid) assistant to John Hingston, probably through the influence of his Although the preface refers to the “Author” in the uncle (or father) Thomas Purcell who held various third person and Playford often wrote the court positions including gentleman of the Chapel introductory material to his publications, it is likely Royal, composer for the violins, and groom of the that these are Purcell’s own words or at least his robes. The following year he took on the role of sentiments: “he has faithfully endeavour’d a just organ tuner and copier of organ music at imitation of the most fam’d Italian masters, Westminster Abbey which also gave him the principally to bring the seriousness and gravity of opportunity to continue his studies with the that sort of Musick into vogue and reputation Abbey’s organist John Blow (who had succeeded among our Countrymen whose humour, ‘tis time Humphrey as Master of the Children at the now, should begin to loathe the levity and balladry Chapel). In 1677 he was appointed, like his father of our neighbours”. The identity of the “fam’d and uncle before him, as a composer of the violins Italian masters” and the maligned “neighbours” (filling a vacancy left by the death of Matthew has the subject of much speculation. Corelli’s

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highly influential Op. 1 sonatas which had been part at all, and his change of mind on this point published in 1681, may not have been available to resulted in a delay in the publication. The Purcell when he was composing his own but there downgrading of the continuo’s role in the 1683 was no shortage of other candidates. Italian sonatas may represent another attempt at sonatas were circulating in England, both in “Italianisation” since the identically scored set of manuscript, such as those of Lelio Colista, whom ten sonatas, posthumously published in 1697, Purcell singled out for praise in The Introduction to were issued as Ten Sonatas of IV Parts. Eight of the the Skill of Musick, and in published form, such as 1697 group appear in the autograph manuscript the “printed consorts” of Giovanni Batista Vitali which contains the pavans and fantasias, securely and Maurizio Cazzati. Another Italian, the virtuoso dated to the early 1680s, and so it is probable that violinist Nicola Matteis who had been in the they were also composed around this time. The country since the early 1670s, included a number Four Part works do not therefore represent any of works in sonata form in his Ayres for the Violin development in his approach to the sonata form published between 1676 and 1685. According to over those he had selected for earlier publication Roger North, an assiduous chronicler of the and may in fact predate them. Great care had been musical history of the period, Matteis “was the taken in the arrangement of the Three Part set ‐ means of settling Italian music in England … and each minor key sonata is paired with one in the nothing in town had relish without the spice of major a third higher, in a pattern which first Italy. The masters began to imitate them ‐ witness ascends by thirds and then, with the major work Mr Purcell in his noble set of sonatas.” now a third below, begins to descend in the same intervals (although the scheme is not fully worked It is a possible that the reference to his Italian out ). The Four Part set, other than the first two models was simply a ploy by Purcell (or his which are also a minor/relative major pairing, publisher) to add his own spice to the newly shows no sign of conscious patterning on this scale, published works but given his habit of studying and although they are not in exactly the same other composers, often by copying out their work order as they appear in the 1680s manuscript, (a practice he recommended to the students of there is nothing significant in their printed music) it is probable that they did exist. His use of sequence. In both sets the bass part contributes to Italian tempo markings, whose meaning he felt it the musical argument on a more or less equal necessary to explain to the “English Practitioner” footing with the violins with the keyboard continuo does suggest a concession to fashion as Purcell did having a semi‐independent role from it. However not generally use them in his autograph scores, in certain passages, notably the Largo of the fifth preferring English terms such as “Brisk”, “Slow” sonata of the 1683 group (Z794), the continuo and “Drag”. The recommendation to reject “the becomes fully independent as a fourth part which levity and balladry of our neighbours” is often is curious if it really had been Purcell’ s intention taken as a dig at the French, although given the not to provide the player with a written out part. professed partiality of Charles II, the sonatas’ The sonatas show Purcell’s fascination with dedicatee, to French music and his less well‐ contrapuntal technique which he elaborated in his advertised close political ties with Louis XIV, it is contribution to the 12th edition of Playford’s The unlikely that an overt anti‐French sentiment was Introduction to the Skill of Musick of 1694. His intended (or would have been wise). In the preface comment that it embodies “a great deal of Art to Dioclesian of 1690, Purcell commented that mixed with good Air, which is the Perfection of a English music which was in comparison with poetry Master” neatly sums up his own achievement. He and painting still in an immature state, enjoyed the employs the full range of contrapuntal devices ‐ beneficial influence of both Italian and French augmentation and diminution (the lengthening or music, the latter providing “somewhat more of shortening of the subject’s note values across the Gayety and Fashion”. He may have changed his parts), inversion and reversion (note for note mind since 1683 or more probably, the earlier reversal of the subject) ‐ see Z735 for single and vague reference was simply designed to provide a double augmentation, Z739 for inversion and contrast with the seriousness of the Italian style he augmentation in the opening section, Z743 for wished to promote. The twelve sonatas published single, double and triple augmentation at the it in 1683 are scored for two violins, gamba and conclusion and Z810 (the so called Golden Sonata) continuo for harpsichord (or organ), but were for triple invertible counterpoint in the final issued as Sonatas of Three parts, thus discounting movement. He generally follows the format of the the continuo as a discrete partafter the Italian sonata da chiesa (church sonata) in the alternation fashion. Purcell’s original intention, as he mentions of slow and fast movements, rather than the in the preface, had been not to print the continuo sonata da camera (chamber sonata) with its looser

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sequence of dance movements (but he neither period, in which public music making more or less adheres to the strict four movement structure of ceased, provided ideal conditions for the domestic the former or excludes the dance rhythms of the consort to flourish, since, as Roger North latter). commented, “many chose rather to fiddle at home than go out and be knocked on the head abroad”. The number of movements varies but the 1697 With the theatres closed and music proscribed in group usually have five with a fugal canzona in church (many organs and choir books suffering second place, apart from the sixth (Z807) which destruction at the hands of the more zealous consists of a single long Adagio in the form of a Puritans) it was only within the domestic context chaconne. This is based on an irregular five that music could be played or heard. The court measure ground bass from an Italian song Scocca musicians and composers had been dispersed pur by a “Mr Baptist” once thought to be Jean‐ when the king left London in 1642, some like Henry Baptiste Lully but possibly Giovanni Battista Draghi Cooke and William Lawes joining the royalist forces (organist to Charles II’s wife, Catherine of Braganza (Cooke survived but Lawes was killed during the and music master to his nieces, the Princesses siege of Chester), others, like John Jenkins who Mary and Anne). The Italian tempo markings which became resident music master for Lord Dudley mark off the sections or movements were North (Roger’s father) finding refuge around the explained in the preface in very broad (and for the country in royalist households where they interpreter rather unhelpful) terms as: ‘Adagio and maintained the consort tradition. However the Grave which import nothing but a very slow Restoration which occasioned a great rebuilding movement, Presto Largo, Poco Largo or Largo by and refurbishing of broken and silent organs, the itself a middle movement and Allegro and Vivace a re‐establishment of church choirs, the re‐opening very brisk , swift or fast movement” so there may of the theatres and the return of music to the not be as much subtle variation in the tempi as the centre of court life also brought about a profound range of different markings suggests. change in the course of English music. Ironically it was the personality of the new king that proved The Fantasias fatal to the more intimate and reflective musical If the sonatas show Purcell at the cutting edge of forms that had survived the rigours of the Puritan fashion, striking out into new musical territory, his era. Charles’s musical taste had been formed consort works – the fantasias and pavans ‐ take during his lengthy exile abroad and he was him on a journey into the past. By the early 1680s unsympathetic to the subtle and ingenious the fantasia or fancy as it was often known in interweaving of musical lines which characterised England was an obsolete musical form. It had been the fancy – a form which he professed to detest. popular since the beginning of the sixteenth He preferred to listen to music to which he could century, as medium for both solo instrument beat time and augmented the court orchestra in (keyboard or lute) and string or wind consort and emulation of the Vingt‐quatre violons du Roi of his when written for the latter, was essentially an cousin Louis XIV, expanding its role from the instrumental motet in which a short theme is provision of public music for dances and to treated contrapuntally, usually in three to six parts. accompany dinner to playing in the private Thomas Morley, himself a great composer of apartment, an invasion of the domain of the fancys, described the free‐form nature of fantasia Private Musick which, as North put it “disbanded composition in his Plaine and Easie Introduction to the old English music at once”. Prakticall Musick of 1597: “the musician taketh a point at his pleasure and wresteth and turneth it as Therefore Purcell’s decision in 1679 or 1680 to he list, making as much or little of it as it shall seem embark on the composition of a series of pieces in best at his own conceit. In this may the more art be an all‐but vanished form and for the viol consort, shown than in any other music because the now almost completely superseded by the violin, is composer is tied to nothing but that he may add, puzzling. It is possible he was simply testing his diminish or alter at his pleasure”. Most of the great musical skill against the masters of the past and it Elizabethan and Jacobean composers, including is clear that he had made a close study of his William Byrd, Thomas Tompkins, and John predecessors. The Four Part works look back to the Dowland, tried their hand at the fancy and it was those of Matthew Locke, the Three Part to Orlando further developed by the constellation of Gibbons and the Six and Seven part In nomines to musicians at the court of Charles I including the beginning of the tradition more than a century Giovanni Coperario (who began life more before. Whether the works were ever performed is prosaically as John Cooper), Orlando Gibbons and unknown. Certainly Roger North, who had a William Lawes. The Civil War and Commonwealth nostalgic affection for the older musical styles and

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was generally well informed about the music of the Works for Keyboard period, thought that Locke’s Consort of Fower Purcell’s keyboard music has been preserved in a parts (written twenty years previously) had been variety of sources but the three principal the last large scale work for viol consort which collections are The Second Part of Musick’s suggests that he was unaware of the existence of Handmaid published in 1689 by Henry Playford, Purcell’s sequence. containing three suites, a number of marches and minuets, song tunes and transcriptions from two Purcell headed the four sections in the autograph odes; A Choice Collection of Lessons posthumously score containing the fantasias with references to published in 1697 containing eight suites, two of their increasing number of parts, the final section which had previously appeared in Musick’s being ”Here beginneth ye 6, 7, and 8 part Handmaid, and transcriptions from theatrical Fantazia’s”. This suggests that he had planned to incidental music; and a recently discovered create a much larger and more comprehensive autograph manuscript containing twenty one collection and the blank pages in the score may pieces, five of which were previously unknown and have been intended to contain more five part which is the only surviving score of Purcell’s compositions to supplement the single completed keyboard music in his own hand. The Second Part one and the fragmentary work which breaks off of Musick’s Handmaid was intended to supplement after thirty‐one bars (Z744) and the eight part and update the original volume published by works which remained tantalizingly unwritten. The Henry’s father John in 1678 by providing “the Four Part fantasias were all composed in the space newest lessons, Grounds, Sarabandes Minuets and of a few months in the summer of 1680 and Jiggs”. In addition to Purcell’s pieces, it contains Purcell’s precise dating of each piece may indicate works by John Blow and other lesser known (and that he wished them to be perceived as a some anonymous) composers which, as Purcell continuous sequence. Like the sonatas, they edited the entire volume himself, he may have had display his fascination with contrapuntal technique a hand in arranging or transcribing. Purcell’s – there is single and double augmentation in Z735, contributions include two song tunes ‐ Ah how inversion and augmentation in the opening section pleasing it is to love (Z353) (track 1) and Sylvia now of Z739, and single double and triple augmentation your scorn give over (Z420) (track 3) which had in the closing section of Z743. The Fantasia in Five appeared the previous year in Playford’s A Banquet Parts (Z745) takes its name “One Note Fantasia” of Music, transcriptions of parts of two of his St from the tenor viol part which holds middle C for Cecilia Odes, the alto solo from Welcome to all the the entire duration of the piece. Purcell may have Pleasures of 1684 (Z331/3) which is described intended this a joke – the creation of a part for a rather ingenuously as “A New Ground” (track 9) particularly unskilled player – or it may have been and a section of Raise raise the voice (Z334) of a test of his ingenuity in working out a c1685 (track 13). contrapuntal argument having deliberately restricted the scope of one of the parts as far as it “A New Scotch Tune” (track 8) had previously was possible. If the Three and Four Part fantasias appeared in Playford’s collection Apollo’s Banquet revisit the relatively recent musical past then the of 1685 and was in fact the popular Scottish air Six and Seven part In nomines (Z746 and Z747) go “Peggy I must love you” (which Haydn was also to back much further in time. The In nomine derives arrange a century later in his second set of Scottish from the cantus firmus setting of the words “In Songs produced for George Thomson of Edinburgh nomine Domini” from the Benedictus of John [Hob XXXIa‐167]). Perhaps the best known tune in Taverner’s mass Gloria Tibi Trinitas (c1530). This the collection is “A New Irish Tune” better known provided the basis for over one hundred and fifty as Lilliburlero which for many years was regularly later compositions for viol consort or keyboard and broadcast across the world as the signature tune of was a hugely popular form in the sixteenth and the BBC World Service. Although he was early seventeenth centuries. However it had long responsible for popularising it, Purcell certainly did since fallen out of fashion and when Purcell took it not compose the tune which had already appeared up, it had been almost thirty years since anyone in a flute tutor of 1686 and was probably an had written such music. However from being an English rather than an Irish folk tune. It was taken exercise in musical archaeology or an exercise in up by the forces opposed to James II who had been musical nostalgia, in the words of Percy Grainger deposed in 1688 and finally lost his bid to regain they “abound in discords strange but lovely to the the throne at the battle of the Boyne in 1690 and, modern ear”. equipped with a set of satirical anti‐Catholic verses, it was the tune to which King James was “whistled out of three kingdoms”. Purcell Collection 15

Perhaps the most interesting piece in Musick’s number of pupils from the upper and aristocratic Handmaid is the short work entitled Sefauchi’s classes including Rhoda Cartwright who married Farewell (track 12) which refers to Giovanni Lord Henry Cavendish, Annabella Dyce, one of Francesco Grossi, a famous castrato of the period Princess Anne’s maids of honour, who later who became known as Siface after singing the role married Sir Robert Howard, and Sir Robert’ of Syphax in Cavalli’s Scipione. Siface was granddaughter Diana. associated with the Modenese court of Duke Francesco II, brother of Mary, second wife of King The main content of A Choice Collection are the James II, and had been sent by the Duke to England eight keyboard suites comprising two or three brief to entertain his sister. He is known to have sung in dance movements including an Alamand followed James’s Catholic chapel in Whitehall and at a by a Corant (apart from no. 6) and preceded by a private recital at the house of Samuel Pepys and short prelude (apart from no. 7) and for all their may also have performed the soprano part in unassuming conciseness of expression they proved Purcell’s anthem My Song shall always be of the very influential for later generations of English loving kindness (Z031) the only full length soprano keyboard composers. The other pieces in the part in the anthems. If this is the case Purcell may collection are a version of the Trumpet Cibell (track have got to know him quite well and although he 18) and five transcriptions of theatrical incidental was apparently an absolute prima donna, this music ‐ two more trumpet tunes from The Indian rather tender little piece suggests an affectionate Queen (Z630/9) and Dioclesian (Z627/21) (tracks 15 remembrance. Siface returned to Italy in 1687 and 19), a march from The Married Beau (Z603/8) because the English weather was bad for his voice (track 14) a chaconne from Timon of Athens and ended up murdered by the brothers of the (Z632/20) (track 16) and a jig from Abdelazar Marchese Marsili with whom he was reputed to be (Z510/9) (track 17). having an affair (a curious circumstance for one in his physical condition). In 1993 a manuscript was discovered which contained twenty keyboard pieces by Purcell (and A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord one by Orlando Gibbons – the Prelude in G from or spinet was published under the direction of Parthenia) written in his own hand, as well as Purcell’s widow Frances in 1697 with a dedication eighteen pieces by Draghi which are almost to Princess Anne and was the first published certainly in Draghi’s hand. The arrangement of the collection of keyboard works by an English pieces suggest that it was intended to be a composer. The word “lesson” can be understood keyboard tutor with pieces graded in order of both in the sense of something which is to be read difficulty, and which was used first by Purcell for (as in a church lesson) and an instruction to a pupil his own pupils and then after his death by Draghi and, unlike The Second Part of Musick’s Handmaid for his. Of the Purcell works, five were previously which contained no theoretical or practical advice unknown and four others transcriptions which do for the player, A Choice Collection includes four not appear in any other source. The later works in pages of musical theory and advice on the Purcell section of the manuscript are ornamentation and fingering by Purcell. However a movements from the suites which appear in recent study has shown that these may have been Musick’s Handmaid and A Choice Collection (and so pirated from Thomas Walsh’s The Harpsichord are not included here) and the earlier ones Master published in 1697 which contains an comprise a Prelude, Minuet and Air (all in C), a Jigg, identical set of instructions and yet by Purcell transcriptions of Thus be happy and Free from The advertised as being “taken from his own Fairy Queen (Z629/44a), an Air from The Double Manuscript and never before published being ye Dealer (Z592/9), two hornpipes from The Old best extant.” Comparison of the two versions lends Bachelor (Z607/4) and The Fairy Queen (Z629/1b) support to the theory that it was Playford who and three pieces from The Virtuous Wife – The copied Walsh’s pages which would mean that the Trumpet Minuet (Z611/8), The Air (La Furstenburg, three surviving copies of the 1696 edition were (Z611/9) and the Minuet (Z611/7). The other works actually printings made after the appearance of recorded here are keyboard transcriptions of Walsh’s volume but without a change to the theatrical music from The Indian Queen (tracks 27, original publication date. As well as evidence of the 29 and 31), Abdelazar (tracks 25, 32 and 35) ‐ cut‐throat nature of the publishing trade in the including the Round O (rondeau) which Benjamin pre‐copyright days of the late 17th century, the Britten made famous as the theme of The Young inclusion of? Purcell’s keyboard tutorial in rival Person’s Guide to the Orchestra ‐, The Double volumes highlights his reputation as a player and Dealer (track 23) and The Old Bachelor (track 33); teacher. During the 1690s he had taken on a two grounds from odes – Ye Tuneful Muses,

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(Z344/11) (track 30) and Celebrate this Festival attempt to breathe life into an antique form did (Z321/1) (track 31) and various airs and dance not bear fruit as he was probably the last movements showing Purcell’s immense versatility composer for over two hundred years to write and inexhaustible inventiveness. In the light of music in this form. Purcell’s long and distinguished career as an organist it is unfortunate that hardly any of his The Three parts on a Ground (Z731) is the first of works for organ survive but given their essentially Purcell’s ground‐based compositions and can by improvisatory nature perhaps this is not surprising. played in D on strings (in an identical scoring as There is also some doubt as to the authenticity of Z752) or as in this recording, in F on recorders (the some of the few that have been handed down form in which it may have been originally under his name but Z718 and Z719 are generally conceived). The opening chaconne is developed in believed to be genuine Purcell. four episodes of strict canon and displays elaborate counterpoint of dazzling virtuosity His reputation as an organist was such that in 1686 including passages of inversion and reversion he was invited to assess the quality of the recently which Purcell takes care to indicate in score either installed organ in the church of St Katherine Cree to aid the players’ understanding or simply to draw in London as well give his opinion in the attention to his ingenuity. The four part Chacony in appointment of the new organist. He was also G minor (Z730) has become one of Purcell’s best involved in the long running dispute on the choice known instrumental works. Its eighteen variations of an new organ for the Middle Temple which on an eight bar descending ground shows the reached such a pitch that the rival instruments influence of Robert Smith’s three part chaconne were assembled in the Temple Church where they published in 1677 and may have been composed underwent rigorous competitive testing at the for Charles’ violin band. The Suite in G comprises hands of Purcell, Blow and Draghi with the final an overture followed by four movements, Air, judgement on the winner being given by the Lord Borry, (bouree) Minuet and Jig which do not Chief Justice himself, the notorious Judge Jeffreys. correspond to the usual number or sequence of dance movements in suites of this period, but this Pavans, Chacony, Overtures and other appears to have been a deliberate choice on instrumental music Purcell’s part as the work is preserved in this form The Pavans, which are slightly earlier in date than in his autograph. the fantasias, also look back to a vanished age. The earliest surviving English pavans (the name is The Staircase Overture so called because of the derived either from pavo the Latin for peacock or rapidly ascending scales in the opening section, is padovana relating to the town of Padua) date from probably the earliest example of Purcell’s the 1540s and they flourished as accompaniment instrumental music to have survived and was to the stately court dances of the Elizabethan era. probably also written for the Charles’ Twenty‐four The form lived on in the Jacobean and Caroline violins. It came to light in a manuscript in Tatton period in the consort suites of Lawes and Jenkins House in Cheshire into which it had been copied by and was briefly revived after the Restoration by the 18th century scholar Philip Hayes who Matthew Locke in his Broken Consort suites of the obviously did not have access to a complete set of early 1660s. The influence of Locke is apparent in part books as the bass part is missing (the continuo the four Three Part Pavans (Z748‐51) but unlike part was almost certainly added by Hayes himself Locke’s, each of which head a suite of dance as it employs naturals which did not come into use movements, Purcell’s pavans are independent until the 1700s). However a copy of the part book pieces. However the Four Part Pavan in G minor containing the missing part survived separately in a (Z752) is followed in the autograph by three blank manuscript now in America and the reuniting of pages and so may originally have been intended as the two scores permits the overture to be heard as a prelude to a suite (and the existence of another Purcell intended. It is heavily influenced by fragmentary pavan followed by a dance movement Matthew Locke’s incidental music for a version of may indicate that Purcell had contemplated The Tempest staged in 1674, particularly its incorporating the pavan form into a larger opening movement and the Storm Music of the structure). Z752 (c1678) is conceived on a larger Curtain tune (the equivalent of the overture). The scale than the others and is in three contrasting opening alamand is followed by a minuet‐like sections the third of which is modelled on John movement and a B flat final section whose Jenkins’s 1652 Lyra Consort and the work may in relationship to Robert Smith’s New Year’s Day fact be intended as a tribute to Jenkins following Suite, performed on January 1st 1676 points to a his recent death. As with the fantasias, Purcell’s composition date in 1677.

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The other overtures may have originated as violin and continuo. However it is generally instrumental preludes to vocal music. The Overture thought (believed???) that the continuo lacks in G (Z770) is a version for string consort of the sufficient material to harmonise adequately with opening sinfonia to the Welcome Song “Swifter Isis violin line, and there have been various attempts swifter flow“ of 1681 (Z336). This was the second at reconstructing the missing part (including in a court ode commissioned from Purcell probably to version for gamba by Thurston Dart) in order to mark Charles II’s return to London from Oxford turn this work into a true trio sonata. In this where he had summoned a session of Parliament recording however the inner harmonies are in order to isolate his political opponents from supplied by the bass line derived solely from the their London power base, and then immediately manuscript. dissolved it. The Overtures in D minor and G minor (Z771 and Z772) may also have been attached to David Moncur no longer surviving odes and Z772, which shares its five part string scoring with the 1689 Birthday Ode for Queen Mary, “Now does the Glorious Day appear” (Z332 ) and Draghi’s influential St Celica Ode of 1687, may indicate a later date for it than the other overtures.

Purcell’s name has become inextricably linked with the a work for trumpet that he did not write – the so called Trumpet Voluntary (actually “The Prince of Denmark’s’ March” by Jeremiah Clarke) but his association with the instrument began relatively late in his career. Although the sixteen royal trumpets had long been available to the court composers, it was only in the 1690s that Purcell began to make frequent use of them. Although one might have expected to hear them in the 1687 Welcome Ode – Sound the trumpet beat the drum, this work is scored for strings alone and it was in the “Yorkshire Feast Song” Of old when heroes thought it base (333) of 1690 in which trumpets first made their presence felt. The Sonata for Trumpet and Strings (Z850) may have originated as the sinfonia for the lost New Year Ode of 1693/4, a setting of Light of the World and ruler of the Year whose libretto suggests the inclusion of a trumpet part (although as the 1687 ode shows, music and text do not necessarily go hand in hand). The trumpet appears in the first and third section where it contributes to the thematic material rather than simply providing flourishes and fanfares with the contemplative inner section scored for strings and continuo alone. The Cibell for Trumpet and Strings is an example of a type of work that enjoyed popularity in England from 1690 to 1710. The tune is based on the melody of a chorus which accompanies the Descente de Cybelle in Lully’s 1687 opera Atys and Purcell’s version, with its sprightly trumpet tune over and running bass figures, became the model for several other “Cibells” including one by Jeremiah Clarke. The Prelude in D minor (Z773) also exists in a G minor version for violin and the Sonata in G minor (Z780) dating from 1683‐4 survives in an incomplete version and was originally thought to be for solo

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SUNG TEXTS TENOR & ALTO ‘We come, we come, we come, we come’, Trust'em not, for they'll deceive ye, 5 The white horse neighed aloud. Says the double beat of the thundering drum. And in bogs and marshes leave ye. KING ARTHUR or To Woden thanks we render, THE BRITTISH WORTHY To Woden we have vowed. CHORUS CHORUS OF PHILIDEL’S SPIRITS ‘Come if you dare’, our trumpets sound? Hither, this way, this way bend. CHORUS CD1 To Woden, our defender, thanks we render? TENOR CHORUS OF GRIMBALD’S SPIRITS 1 First Music: Chaconne Now they charge on amain, This way, hither, this way bend. SOPRANO Now they rally again. 2 Second Music: Overture 6 The lot is cast, and Tanfan pleased; The Gods from above the mad labour behold, PHILIDEL Of mortal cares you shall be eased. And pity mankind that will perish for gold. If you step no longer thinking, 3 Second Music: Air Down you fall, a furlong sinking. CHORUS CHORUS ’Tis a fiend who has annoyed ye; FIRST ACT 7 Brave souls, to be renowned in story, Now they charge on amain? Name but Heav'n, and he'll avoid ye. Honour prizing, Hither, this way. BASS Death despising, TENOR 4 Woden, first to thee Fame acquiring The fainting Saxons quit their ground, CHORUS OF PHILIDEL’S SPIRITS A milk‐white steed, in battle won, By expiring, Their trumpets languish in their sound, Hither, this way, this way bend. We have sacrificed. Die and reap the fruit of glory. They fly, they fly, they fly, they fly, ‘Victoria’, the bold Britons cry. CHORUS OF GRIMBALD’S SPIRITS CHORUS TENOR This way, hither, this way bend. We have sacrificed. 8 I call ye all CHORUS To Woden's Hall, The fainting Saxons quit their ground? CHORUS OF PHILIDEL’S SPIRITS TENOR Tour temples round Trust not the malicious fiend. Let our next oblation be With ivy bound TENOR Hither, this way, this way bend. To Thor, thy thundering son, In goblets crowned, Now the victory's won, Of such another. And plenteous bowls of burnished gold, To the plunder we run, GRIMBALD Where ye shall laugh We return to our lasses like fortunate traders, 11 Let not a moonborn elf mislead ye CHORUS And dance and quaff Triumphant with spoils of the vanquished From our prey and from your glory; We have sacrificed. The juice that makes the Britons bold. invaders. To fear, alas, he has betrayed ye; Follow the flames that wave before ye, BASS CHORUS CHORUS Sometimes seven and sometimes one. A third (of Friesland breed was he) To Woden's Hall all Now the victory's won? Hurry, hurry, hurry on. To Woden's wife, and to Thor's mother; Where in plenteous bowls of burnished gold See, see the footsteps plan appearing. And now, we have atoned all three. We shall laugh SECOND ACT That way Oswald chose for flying. And dance and quaff Firm is the turf and fit for bearing, CHORUS The juice that makes the Britons bold. PHILIDEL Where yonder pearly dews are lying. We have sacrificed. 10 Hither, this way, this way bend, Far he cannot hence be gone. TENOR Trust not the malicious fiend. Hurry, hurry, hurry on. 9 ‘Come if you dare’, our trumpets sound. Those are false deluding lights ‘Come if you dare’, the foes rebound. Wafted far and near by sprites. Purcell Collection 19

CHORUS OF PHILIDEL’S SPIRITS CHORUS COLD GENIUS CUPID 12 Hither, this way, this way bend. How blest are shepherds, how happy their lasses? 20 What power art thou, who from below 26 ’Tis I, ’tis I that have warmed ye. Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow In spite of cold weather CHORUS OF GRIMBALD’S SPIRITS ONE SHEPHERD From beds of everlasting snow? I've brought ye together. This way, hither, this way bend. Bright nymphs of Britain with graces attended, See'st thou not how stiff and wondrous old Let not your days without pleasure expire. Far unfit to bear the bitter cold, CHORUS CHORUS OF PHILIDEL’S SPIRITS Honour's but empty, and when youth is ended, I can scarcely move or draw my breath? ’Tis Love that has warmed us? Trust not the malicious fiend. All men will praise you but none will desire. Let me, let me freeze again to death. Hither, this way, this way bend. Let not youth fly away without contenting; CUPID & GENIUS Age will come time enough for your repenting. CUPID 27 Sound a parley, ye fair, and surrender. PHILIDEL & TWO SOPRANOS, ALTO, BASS 21 Thou doting fool, forbear, forbear! Set yourselves and your lovers at ease. 13 Come, follow me. CHORUS What dost thou mean by freezing here? He's a grateful offender Bright nymphs of Britain with graces attended? At Love's appearing, Who pleasure dare seize: CHORUS All the sky clearing, But the whining pretender Come, follow me? TWO SHEPHERDESSES The stormy winds their fury spare. Is sure to displease. 15 Shepherd, shepherd, leave decoying: Thou doting fool, forbear, forbear! Sound a parley? TWO VOICES Pipes are sweet on summer's day, What dost thou mean by freezing here? Since the fruit of desire is possessing, And green‐sward all your way shall be. But a little after toying, Winter subduing, ’Tis unmanly to sigh and complain. Women have the shot to pay. And Spring renewing, When we kneel for redressing, CHORUS Here are marriage‐vows for signing: My beams create a more glorious year. We move your disdain. Come, follow me? Set their marks that cannot write, Love was made for a blessing No goblin or elf shall dare to offend ye. After that, without repining, COLD GENIUS And not for a pain. Play, and welcome, day and night. 22 Great Love, I know thee now: CHORUS THREE VOICES CHORUS OF SHEPHERDS Eldest of the gods art thou. ’Tis Love that has warmed us? We brethren of air 16 Come, Shepherds, lead up a lively measure; Heav'n and earth by thee were made. You heroes will bear, The cares of wedlock are cares of pleasure: Human nature is thy creature. 28 Third Act Tune: Hornpipe To the kind and the fair that attend ye. But whether marriage brings joy or sorrow, Everywhere thou art obeyed.

Make sure of this day and hang tomorrow. CD2 CHORUS CUPID 23 No part of my dominion shall be waste: We brethren of air? 17 Second Act Tune: Air FOURTH ACT To spread my sway and sing my praise,

E'en here, e'en here I will a people raise ONE SHEPHERD THIRD ACT TWO SIRENS Of kind embracing lovers and embraced. 14 How blest are shepherds, how happy their 18 Prelude 1 Two daughters of this aged stream are we, lasses, And both our sea‐green locks have combed for ye. 24 Prelude While drums and trumpets are sounding alarms! CUPID Come, come, bathe with us an hour or two; Over our lowly sheds all the storm passes, 19 What ho! thou genius of this isle, what ho! CHORUS OF COLD PEOPLE Come, come, naked in for we are so, And when we die 'tis in each other's arms, Liest thou asleep beneath those hills of snow? 25 See, see, we assemble What danger from a naked foe? All the day on our herds and flocks employing, Stretch out thy lazy limbs. Awake, awake! Thy revels to hold, Come, come, bathe with us and share All the night on our flutes and in enjoying. And winter from thy furry mantle shake. Tho' quivering with cold, What pleasures in the floods appear.

We chatter and tremble. We'll beat the waters till they bound And circle round. Purcell Collection 20

TENOR FIFTH ACT CHORUS Sighs that blow the fire of love, 2 How happy the lover, Come, boys, come, Soft repulses, kind disdaining, How easy his chain! 4 Trumpet Tune And merrily roar out our harvest home. Shall be all the pains you prove. How sweet to discover Every swain shall pay his duty, He sighs not in vain. AELOS COMUS Grateful every nymph shall prove; 5 Ye blustering brethren of the skies, We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again, And as these excel in beauty, CHORUS Whose breath has ruffled all the watery plain, For why should a blockhead have one in ten? Those shall be renowned for love. How happy the lover? Retire and let Britannia rise One in ten, one in ten? In triumph o'er the main. SHE SOPRANO & BASS Serene and calm and void of fear, ALL 11 You say, 'tis Love creates the pain For love every creature The Queen of Islands must appear. One in ten, one in ten, Of which so sadly you complain, Is formed by his nature. For why should a blockhead have one in ten? And yet would fain engage my heart No joys are above 6 Symphony In that uneasy cruel part; The pleasures of love. COMUS But how, alas! think you that I NEREID & PAN For prating so long, like a book‐learned sot, Can bear the wounds of which you die? 7 Round thy coast, fair nymph of Britain, CHORUS Till pudding and dumpling are burnt to pot; For thy guard our waters flow. HE No joys are above Burnt to pot, burnt to pot? Proteus all his herd admitting ’Tis not my passion makes my care The pleasures of love. On thy green to graze below. But your indifference gives despair: ALL Foreign lands thy fish are tasting; The lusty sun begets no spring THREE NYMPHS Burnt to pot, burnt to pot, Learn from thee luxurious fasting. Till gentle showers assistance bring; In vain our graces Till pudding and dumpling are burnt to pot. So Love, that scorches and destroys, In vain are your ayes. CHORUS Till kindness aids can cause no joys. If love you despise, COMUS Round thy coast, fair nymph of Britain? When age furrows faces We'll toss off our ale till we cannot stand; SHE ’Tis too late to be wise. COUNTERTENOR, TENOR & BASS And heigh for the honour of old England; Love has a thousand ways to please, 8 For folded flocks, and fruitful plains, Old England, old England? But more to rob us of our ease;

THREE MEN The shepherd's and the farmer's gains, For waking nights and careful days, The use the sweet blessing ALL Fair Britain all the world outvies; Old England, old England, Some hours of pleasure he repays; While now in possessing. And Pan, as in Arcadia, reigns But absence soon, or jealous fears, No joys are above And heigh for the honour of old England. Where pleasure mixed with profit lies. Overflows the joy with floods of tears. The pleasures of love. Tho' Jason's fleece was famed of old, VENUS The British wool is growing gold; 10 Fairest Isle, all isles excelling, HE THREE WOMEN No mines can more of wealth supply, Seat of pleasure and of love, But one soft moment makes amends No joys are above It keeps the peasants from the cold, Venus here will choose her dwelling, For all the torment that attends. The pleasures of love. And takes for kings the Tyrian dye. And forsake her Cyprian grove. SHE & HE Cupid from his favourite nation Let us love and to happiness haste. CHORUS COMUS Care and envy will remove; Age and wisdom come too fast. No joys? 9 Your hay it is mowed and your corn is reaped, Jealousy that poisons passion, Youth for loving was designed. 3 Fourth Act Tune: Air Your barns will be full and your hovels heaped. And despair that dies for love. Come, boys, come, Gentle murmurs, sweet complaining, SHE And merrily roar out our harvest home. You be constant, I'll be kind. Purcell Collection 21

HE CD3 Trip it, trip it in a Ring; POET I'll be constant, you be kind. Around this Mortal Dance, and Sing. I confess I’m very poor. Nay prithee do not pinch me so, SHE & HE THE FAIRY QUEEN POET Good dear Devil let me go; Haven can give no greater blessing Enough, enough, And as I hope to wear the Bays, Than faithful love and kind possessing. First Music We must play at Blind Man’s Buff. I’ll write a Sonnet in thy Praise. Turn me round, and stand away, 12 Trumpet Tune 1 Prelude I’ll catch whom I may. CHORUS Drime ‘em hence, away, away, HONOUR 2 Hornpipe SECOND FAIRY Let ‘em sleep till break of Day. 13 Saint George, the patron of our Isle! About him go, so, so, so, The Indian Boy falls asleep, A soldier and a saint! Second Music Pinch the Wretch from Top to Toe and to hide him from Oberon, On this auspicious order smile, Pinch him forty, forty times Titania causes the earth to open, Which love and arms will plant. 3 Aire Pinch till he confess his Crimes. into which he sinks. Our Sovereign high in awful state Hold, you damned tormenting Punk, His honours shall bestow; 4 Rondeau I confess… 8 First Act Tune: Jig And see his sceptred subjects wait ACT II On his commands below. ACT I BOTH FAIRIES

What, what, etc. 9 Scene: A Wood, by Moon‐light CHORUS 5 Overture Enter Titania, and her Train. The scene changes to Our natives not alone appear POET a Prospect of Grotto’s, Arbors, and delightful To court the martial prize; Scene: A Palace I’m Drunk, as I live Boys, Drunk. Titania, leading the Indian Boy, Fairies attending. Walks: The Arbors are Adorned with all variety of But foreign kings adopted here Flowers… Their crowns at home despise. BOTH FAIRIES 6 First Song Our Sovereign high in awful state? What art thou, speak? Then the first Song Come, come, come, let us leave Town, Come all ye Songsters of the Sky, And in some lonely place, POET Wake, and Assemble in this Wood; Where Crouds and Noise If you will know it, But no ill‐boding Bird be nigh, were never so known, I am a scurvy Poet. None but the Harmless and the Good. Resolve to spend our days.

In pleasant shades upon the Grass BOTH FAIRIES TRIO At Night our selves we’ll lay; Pinch him, pinch him for his Crimes. May the God of Wit inspire, Our Days in harmless Sport shall pass, His Nonsense, and his Dogrel Rhymes. The Sacred Nine to bear a part; Thus Time shall slide away. And the Blessed Heavenly Quire,

POET Shew the utmost of their Art. 7 (Enter Fairies, leading in three Drunken Poets, Hold! Oh! Oh! Oh! While Echo shall in sounds remote, one of them Blinded.) Repeat each Note,

FIRST FAIRY Each Note, each Note. BLIND POET Confess more, more! Fill up the Bowl, then, etc.

FAIRY

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10 Interlude MYSTERY Fellow is present and disperses the actors. Bottom 23 Dance of the Fairies 16 I am come to lock all fast, returns with the Ass’s head and sings “The Four savages enter, fright the fairies away, and CHORUS Love without me cannot last. Woosel‐Cocks o black of hue”. Titania wakes and dance an entry. 11 May the God, etc. Love, like Counsels of the Wise, falls in love with him. There is no change of scene, Must be hid from Vulgar Eyes. but Titania, Bottom, and the Fairies go out, and 24 Dance of the Green Men 12 ECHO ‘Tis holy, and we must conceal it, Oberon and Robin‐ Good‐Fellow enter. They profane it, who reveal it. Enter Titania, Bottom, and Fairies. 25 Song CHORUS I am come, etc. The scene changes to a great Wood; A long row of Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air, appear; 13 Now join your Warbling Voices all, large Trees on each side; A river in the middle; Prepare, and join your tender Voices here. Sing while we trip it on the Green; SECRESIE Two rows of lesser trees of a different king just on Catch, and repeat the Trembling Sounds anew, But no ill Vapours rise or fall, 17 One charming Night the side of the river, which meet in the middle, Soft as her Sighs and sweet as pearly dew, Nothing offend our Fairy Queen. Gives more delight, and make so many arches; Two great dragons Run new Division, and such Measures keep, Than a hundred lucky Days. make a bridge over the river; Their bodies form As when you lull the God of Love asleep. CHORUS Night and I improve the taste, two arches, through which two swans are seen in (Enter Coridon and Mopsa.) 14 Sing while we trip it on the Green; Make the pleasure longer last, the river at a great distance. Enter a troop of But no ill Vapours rise or fall, A thousand, thousand several ways. fawns, Dryades, and Naides. CORIDON Nothing offend our Fairy Queen. Make the pleasure, etc. 26 Now the Maids and the Men are making of (Dance of Fairies) 21 A Song in Two Parts Hay, SLEEP If Love’s a Sweet Passion, why does it torment? We have left the dull Fools, Second Song 18 Hush, no more, be silent all, If a Bitter, oh tell me whence comes my content? and are stolen away. Enter Night, Mystery, Secresie, Sleep, and their Sweet Repose has closed her Eyes. Since I suffer with pleasure, why should I Then Mopsa no more Attendants. (Night sings) Soft as feathered Snow does fall! complain, Be Coy as before, Softly, softly, steal from hence. Or grieve at my Fate, when I know ‘tis in vain? But let us merrily Play, NIGHT No noise disturb her sleeping sense. Yet so pleasing the Pain, so soft is the Dart, And Kiss the sweet time away. 15 See, even Night her self is here, Rest till the Rosie Morn’s uprise That at once it both wounds me, and tickles my To favour your Design; Heart. MOPSA And all her Peaceful Train is near, CHORUS I press her Hand gently, look Languishing down, Why, how now, Sir Clown, That Men to Sleep incline. Hush, no more, be silent all, etc. And by Passionate Silence I make my Love known. How came you so bold? Let Noise and Care, But oh! I’m Blest when so kind she does prove, I’d have ye to know Doubt and Despair, 19 (A dance of the followers of night, Oberon By some willing mistake to discover her Love. I’m not made of that mold. Envy and Speight, squeezes the flower on Titania, Lysander and When in striving to hide, she reveals all her Flame, I tell you again, (The Fiends delight) Hermia fall asleep as in the original, and the Act And our Eyes tell each other, what neither dares Maids must never Kiss no Men. Be ever Banished hence, ends with Robin‐Good‐Fellow’s speech.) Name. No, no; no, no; no Kissing at all; Let soft Repose, I’ll not Kiss, till I Kiss you for good and all. Her Eye‐lids close; 20 Second Act Tune: Aire 22 Overture (Symphony) And murmuring Streams, While a symphony is playing, the two swans come CORIDON Bring pleasing Dreams; ACT III swimming on through the arches to the bank of No, no. Let nothing stay to give offence. the river, as if they would land; these turn See, even Night, etc. Helena enters, but not Demetrius. Lysander wakes themselves into fairies, and dance; at the same MOPSA and follows her. The Clowns rehearse the play as if time the bridge vanishes, and the trees that were No, no. it is given in Act V of the original; Robin‐Good‐ arched, raise themselves upright. Purcell Collection 23

CORIDON I thought it Sin to refuse his Caresses; fountains enriched with gilding, and adorned with Would languish, and fade, and to nothing would Not Kiss you at all. Nature overcame, and I soon changed my Mind. statues: The view is terminated by a walk of fall, Should he employ all his wit in deceiving, cypress trees which lead to a delightful bower. The World to its Chaos would return, but for me. MOPSA Stretch his Invention, and artfully feign; Before the trees stand rows of marble columns, Not Kiss, till you Kiss me for good and all. I find such Charms, such true Joy in believing, which support many walks which rise by stairs to 6 CHORUS Not Kiss, etc. I’ll have the Pleasure, let him have the Pain. the top of the house; the stairs are adorned with Hail! Great Parent of us all, If he proves Perjured, I shall not be Cheated, figures and pedestals, with rails and balusters on Light and Comfort of the Earth; CORIDON He may deceive himself, but never me; each side of them. Near the top, vast quantities of Before your Shrine the Seasons fall, Should you give me a score, ‘Tis what I look for, and shan’t be defeated, water break out of the hills, and fall in mighty Thou who givest all Nature Birth. ‘T would not lessen your store, For I’ll be as false and inconstant as he. cascades to the bottom of the scene, to feed the Then bid me cheerfully, cheerfully Kiss, fountains which are on each side. In the middle of 7 SPRING And take, and take, my fill of your Bliss. 28 A dance of Hay‐makers the sage is a very large fountain, where the water Thus the ever Grateful Spring, rises about twelve feet. The 4 seasons enter, with Does her yearly Tribute bring; MOPSA CHORUS their several attendants. All your Sweets before him lay, I’ll not trust you so far, 29 A Thousand Thousand ways we’ll find The round his Altar, Sing and Play. I know you too well; To Entertain the Hours; 2 ONE OF THE ATTENDANTS Should I give you an Inch, No Two shall ever be known so kind, Now the Night is chased away, 8 SUMMER you’d take a whole Ell. No Life so Blest as ours. All salute the rising Sun; Here’s the Summer, Sprightly, Gay, Then Lordlike you Rule, (After a shortened version of the scene at the ‘Tis that happy, happy Day, Smiling, Wanton, Fresh and Fair; And laugh at the Fool, beginning of Shakespeare’s Act IV, Titania, The Birth‐Day of King Oberon. Adorned with all the Flowers of May, No, no, etc. Bottom, and fairies exeunt.) Whose various Sweets perfume the Air. 3 TWO OTHERS CORIDON 30 Third Act Tune: Hornpipe Let the Fifes, and the Clarions, 9 AUTUMN So small a Request, and shrill Trumpets sound, See my many Coloured Fields You must not, And the Arch of high Heav’n And loaded Trees my Will obey; you cannot you shall not deny, CD4 the Clangour resound. All the Fruit that Autumn yields, Nor will I admit of another play. I offer to the God of Day. Act IV 4 Entry of Phoebus MOPSA (A machine appears, the clouds break from before WINTER Nay, what do you mean? 1 Symphony it, and Phoebus appears in a chariot drawn by four 10 Now Winter comes Slowly, Oh, fie, fie, fie! (Canzona – Largo – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro) horses, and sings.) Pale, Meagre, and Old, Oberon and Robin‐Good‐Fellow enter, then First trembling with Age, 27 A song by a Nymph Lysander and Helena, Demetrius and Hermia PHOEBUS and then quivering with Cold; When I have often heard young Maids Shakespeare’s Act III is followed, with omissions, 5 When a Cruel long Winter has frozen the Earth, Benumbed with hard Frosts, complaining, till the four lovers fall asleep. Oberon then wakes And Nature Imprisoned seeks in vain to be free; and with Snow covered over, That when Men promise most they most deceive, Titania, and Robin‐Good‐ Fellow takes the ass’s I dart forth my Beams, to give all things a Birth, Prays the Sun to Restore him, Then I thought none of them worthy of my head off Bottom. The scene changes to a garden Making Spring for the Plants, every Flower, and and Sings as before. gaining; of fountains. A sonata plays while the sun rises, it each Tree. And what they Swore, resolved never to believe. appears red through the mist, as it ascends it ‘Tis I who give Life, Warmth, and Vigour to all, But when so humbly he made his Addresses, dissipates the vapours, and is seen in its full lustre; Even Love who rules all things in Earth, Air, and With Looks so soft, and with Language so kind, then the scene is perfectly discovered, the Sea; Purcell Collection 24

CHORUS (While the scene is darkened, a single entry is CHORUS SECOND WOMAN 11 Hail! Great Parent of us all, danced. Then a symphony is played.) Thus Happy and Free, 23 Hark now the Echoing Air Light and Comfort of the Earth; Thus treated are we a Triumph Sings, Before your Shrine the Seasons fall, 16 Entry Dance With nature’s chiefest Delights. And all around pleased Thou who givest all Nature Birth. We never cloy, Cupids clap their Wings. 17 Symphony But renew our Joy, 12 Fourth Act Tune: Aire After the scene is suddenly illuminated, a And one Bliss another Invites. CHORUS All go out except Robin‐Good‐Fellow, who applies transparent prospect of a Chinese garden is Hark! Hark! the juice of the herb to Lysander’s eyes. uncovered. The architecture, the trees, the plants, CHORUS the fruits, the birds and the beasts, are quite Thus wildly we live, SECOND WOMAN Act V different to what we have in this world. It is Thus freely we give, 24 Sure the dull God of Marriage does not hear; terminated by an arch, through which other What Heaven as freely bestows. 13 Prelude arches with close arbors can be seen, as well as a We were not made BOTH The duke, Egeus, and attendants find the lovers row of trees at the end of the view. Over it is a For Labour and Trade, We’ll rouse him with a Charm, asleep. Juno appears in a machine drawn by hanging garden, which rises by several ascents to Which Fools on each other impose. Hymen appear! peacocks. While a symphony plays, the machine the top of the house; it is bounded on either side moves forward, and the peacocks spread their with pleasant bowers, various trees, strange birds CHORUS CHORUS tails, and fill the middle of the theatre. flying in the air; on the top of the platform, a We were not made Hymen appear! fountain is throwing up water, which falls into a For Labour and Trade, 14 Epithalamium large basin. Which Fools on each other impose. BOTH Our Queen of Night commands thee not to stay, JUNO A CHINESE MAN A CHINESE MAN Appear! Thrice happy Lovers, may you be 18 Thus the gloomy World 20 Yes, Xansi, in your Looks I find For ever, ever free, At first began to shine, The Charms by which my Heart’s betrayed; CHORUS From that tormenting Devil, Jealousy. And from the Power Divine Then let not your Disdain unbind Our Queen, etc. From all that anxious Care and Strife, A Glory round it hurled; The Prisoner that your Eyes have made. (Enter Hymen) That attends a married Life; Which made it bright, She that in Love makes least Defence, Be to one another true, And gave it Birth in light. Wounds ever with the surest Dart; 25 Prelude Kind to her as she to you, Then were all Minds as pure, Beauty may captivate the Sense, And since the errors of this Night are past, As those Ethereal Streams; But Kindness only gains the Heart. HYMEN May he be ever Constant, she for ever Chast. In Innocence secure, (Six monkeys come from between the trees, and 26 See, see, I obey. The machine ascends. Not Subject to Extremes. dance.) My torch has long been out, I hate There was no Room for empty Fame, On loose dissembled Vows to wait, 15 The Plaint No cause for Pride, Ambition wanted aim. 21 Monkey’s Dance Where hardly Love O let me weep, for ever weep, (Two women sing in parts) out‐lives the Wedding‐Night, False Flames, Love’s My Eyes no more shall welcome Sleep; A CHINESE WOMAN Meteors, yield my Torch no Light. (Six pedestals of I’ll hide me from the sight of Day, 19 Thus Happy and Free, FIRST WOMAN China‐work rise from under the stage; they And sigh, and sigh my Soul away. Thus treated are we 22 Hark how all things with one Sound rejoyce, support six large vases of porcelain, in which are He’s gone, he’s gone, his loss deplore; With nature’s chiefest Delights. And the World seems to have one voice. six China‐Orange‐trees.) And I shall never see him more.

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BOTH WOMEN CD5 Our Carthage to secure, and Troy revive. BELINDA 27 Turn then thy Eyes CHORUS 8 See, your royal guest appears. upon those Glories there, When monarchs unite, how happy their state, How godlike is the form he bears! And catching Flames DIDO AND AENEAS They triumph at once o'er their foes and their will on thy Torch appear. fate. AENEAS 1 Overture When, royal fair, shall I be blessed, HYMEN DIDO With cares of Love and State distressed? 28 My Torch, indeed, ACT THE FIRST 5 Whence could so much virtue spring? will from such Brightness shine: Love ne’er had What storms, what battles did he sing? DIDO yet such Altars, so divine. Scene: The Palace Anchises’ valour mixed with Venus’ charms, Fate forbids what you pursue. (The pedestals move toward the front of the Enter Dido and Belinda, and Train. How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms. stage, and the grand dance of twenty‐ four AENEAS persons begins; then Hymen and the two women BELINDA BELINDA Aeneas has no fate but you. sing together.) 2 Shake the cloud from off your brow, A tale so strong and full of woe, Let Dido smile and I’ll defy Fate your wishes does allow. Might melt the rocks as well as you. The feeble stroke of Destiny. 29 Chaconne Empire growing, CHORUS They shall be as happy as they’re fair; Pleasures flowing, SECOND WOMAN Cupid only throws the dart Love shall fill all the Places of Care: Fortune smiles and so should you. What stubborn heart unmoved could see That’s dreadful to a warrior’s heart, And every time the Sun Shake the cloud from off your brow. Such distress, such piety? And she that wounds can only cure the shall display his Rising Light, smart. It shall be to them a new Wedding‐Day; CHORUS DIDO

And when he sets, a new Nuptial‐Night. Banish sorrow, banish care, Mine with storms of care oppressed AENEAS (A Chinese man and woman dance.) Grief should ne'er approach the fair. Is taught to pity the distressed. 9 If not for mine, for Empire’s sake, Mean wretches’ grief can touch, Some pity on your lover take. THE GRAND CHORUS DIDO So soft, so sensible my breast, Ah! make not in a hopeless fire 30 They shall be as happy as they’re fair; 3 Ah! Belinda, I am pressed but ah! I fear I pity his too much. A hero fall, and Troy expire. Love shall fill all the Places of Care: With torment not to be confessed. Peace and I are strangers grown, And every time the Sun BELINDA and SECOND WOMAN, CHORUS BELINDA shall display his Rising Light, I languish till my grief is known, 6 Fear no danger to ensue, Yet would not have it guessed. Pursue thy conquest, Love! Her eyes It shall be to them a new Wedding‐Day; The hero loves as well as you. Confess the flame her tongue denies. And when he sets, a new Nuptial‐Night. Ever gentle ever smiling, BELINDA (All the dancers join in it. The play ends with a And the cares of life beguiling, A dance (guitar chacony) 4 Grief increases by concealing… kind of epilogue, spoken by Oberon and Titania.) Cupids strew your paths with flowers,

Gathered from Elizian bowers. CHORUS DIDO To the hills and the vales, Mine admits of no revealing. Dance this chorus. To the rocks and the mountains, Then let me speak: the Trojan guest To the musical groves Into your tender thoughts has pressed. 7 The Baske Dance And the cool, shady fountains

Let the triumphs of Love SECOND WOMAN Aeneas enters with his Train. And of Beauty be shown. The greatest blessing Fate can give, Go revel, ye Cupids! The day is your own. Purcell Collection 26

10 The Triumphing Dance FIRST WITCH BELINDA, CHORUS SPIRIT At the end of the dance, thunder and lightning. Hark! The cry comes on apace. 16 Thanks to these lonesome vales, Tonight thou must forsake this land, These desert hills and dales. The angry god will brook no longer stay. ACT THE SECOND SORCERESS So fair the game, so rich the sport, Jove commands thee waste no more But when they’ve done, my trusty elf, Diana’s self might to these woods resort. In love’s delights those precious hours Scene: The Cave In form of Mercury himself, Allowed by the almighty powers Enter Sorceress. As sent from Jove, shall chide his stay A dance (guitar ground) To gain the Hesperian shore, And charge him sail tonight with all his fleet And ruined Troy restore. SORCERESS away. SECOND WOMAN 11 Wayward sisters, you that fright 17 Oft she visits this lone mountain, AENEAS The lonely traveller by night, CHORUS Oft she baths her in this fountain. Jove’s command shall be obeyed Who like dismal ravens crying Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Here Actaeon met his fate, Tonight our anchors shall be weighed. Beat the windows of the dying, Pursued by his own hounds. But ah! What language can I try, Appear at my call, Enter two drunken sailors, and dance. And after mortal wounds, My injured Queen to pacify? And share in the fame Discovered, discovered too late. No sooner she resigns her heart, Of a mischief shall make all FIRST AND SECOND WITCH But from her arms I’m forced to part. Carthage flame. 13 But ere we this perform, A dance to entertain Aeneas by Dido’s women. How can so hard a fate be took, We’ll conjure for a storm One night enjoyed, the next forsook? Enter Witches. To mar their hunting sport AENEAS Yours be the blame, ye gods, for I

And drive ’em back to court. 18 Behold! upon my bending spear Obey your will – but with more ease could FIRST WITCH A monster’s head stands bleeding, die. Say, beldame, what’s thy will. CHORUS IN A MANNER OF AN ECHO With tushes far exceeding CHORUS In a deep‐vaulted cell Those did Venus’ huntsman tear. Enter the Sorceress and her Witches. Harm’s our delight and mischief all our skill. The charm we’ll prepare, Too dreadful a practice DIDO, CHORUS SORCERESS, CHORUS SORCERESS For this open air. The skies are clouded, hark how thunder 20 Then since our charms have sped, 12 The Queen of Carthage, whom we hate, Rends the mountain oaks asunder. A merry dance be led As we do all in prosperous state, 14 Echo Dance Haste to town, this open field By the nymphs of Carthage to please us, Ere sunset shall most wretched prove, Witches and Furies No shelter from the storm can yield. They shall all dance to ease us. Deprived of fame, of life and love. A dance that shall make the spheres to wonder, Thunder and lightning, horrid music. The Furies Exit. The Spirit of the Sorceress descends to Rending those fair groves asunder. CHORUS sink down in the cave, the rest fly up. Aeneas in likeness of Mercury. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! 21 The Groves’ Dance FIRST AND SECOND WITCH Scene: The Grove SPIRIT Ruined ere the set of sun? Enter Aeneas, Dido and Belinda, and their 19 Stay, Prince, and hear great Jove’s command! ACT THE THIRD Tell us, how shall this be done? Train. He summons you this night away. Scene: The Ships SORCERESS 15 Ritournelle AENEAS Enter the Sailors. The Trojan Prince, you know, is bound Tonight? The Sorceress and her Enchantresses. By Fate to seek Italian ground. The Queen and he are now in chase. Purcell Collection 27

SAILOR, CHORUS 26 A Dance AENEAS Keep here your watch and never part. 22 Come away fellow sailors, your anchors be Jack of the Lanthorn leads the Spaniards out of In spite of Jove’s command, I'll stay, weighing, their way among the Enchantresses. Offend the gods, and love obey. 30 Cupids’ Dance Time and tide will admit no delaying. Take a boozy short leave of your nymphs on the Enter Dido, Belinda and Train DIDO shore, No, faithless man, thy course pursue, And silence their mourning DIDO I'm now resolved as well as you. With vows of returning, 27 Your counsel all is urged in vain, No repentance shall reclaim But never intending to visit them more. To earth and heaven I will complain. The injured Dido’s slighted flame. To earth and heaven why do I call? For ’tis enough, whatever you now decree, 23 The Sailors’ Dance Earth and heaven conspire my fall. That you had once a thought of leaving me. To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, SORCERESS The only refuge for the wretched left. AENEAS 24 See the flags and streamers curling, Let Jove say what he will, I’ll stay. Anchors weighing, sails unfurling. BELINDA See, Madame, where the Prince appears! DIDO FIRST WITCH Such sorrow in his looks he bears Away! Phoebe’s pale deluding beams As would convince you still he’s true. To death I fly if longer you delay. Gilding o’er deceitful streams. Exit Aeneas Aeneas enters But death, alas! I cannot shun, FIRST AND SECOND WITCH Death must come when he is gone. Our plot has took, AENEAS The Queen’s forsook, What shall lost Aeneas do? CHORUS Ho, ho, ho! How, royal fair, shall I impart Great minds against themselves conspire, Elissa’a ruin’d, The god’s decree, and tell you we must part? And shun the cure they most desire. Ho, ho, ho! DIDO DIDO SORCERESS Thus on the fatal banks of Nile 28 Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, 25 Our next motion Weeps the deceitful crocodile. On thy bosom let me rest. Must be to storm her lover on the ocean. Thus hypocrites that murder act, More I would, but death invades me, From the ruin of others our pleasures we borrow, Make heaven and gods the authors of the fact. Death is now a welcome guest. Elissa bleeds tonight, and Carthage flames When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create tomorrow. AENEAS No trouble in thy breast. By all that’s good… Remember me, but ah! forget my fate. CHORUS Destruction’s our delight, DIDO Cupids appear in the clouds over her tomb. Delight our greatest sorrow, By all that’s good, no more, Elissa dies tonight All that’s good you have forswore. CHORUS And Carthage flames tomorrow. To your promised empire fly, 29 With drooping wings ye Cupids come Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! And let forsaken Dido die. And scatter roses on her tomb. Soft and gentle as her heart, Purcell Collection 28

HAIL! BRIGHT CECILIA 11 The Fife and all the Harmony of War 15 O sing unto the Lord a new song. Poem by Nicholas Brady 6 Thou tun’st this World below In vain attempt the Passions to alarm, Alleluia. the Spheres above, Which thy commanding Sounds compose and Sing unto the Lord, all the whole earth. CD6 Who in the Heavenly Round charm. Alleluia. to their own Music move. Sing unto the Lord and praise his name: 1 Symphony 12 Let these amongst themselves contest be telling of his salvation from day to day. 7 With that sublime Celestial Lay Which can discharge its single Duty best. Declare his honour unto the heathen: 2 Hail! Bright Cecilia Can any Earthly Sounds compare? Thou summ’st their differing Graces up in One, and his wonders unto all people. Fill every Heart With Love of thee and thy If any Earthly Music dare, And art a Consort of them All within thy Self Glory and worship are before him: Celestial Art;? The noble Organ may. alone. power and honour are in his sanctuary. That thine and Musick’s Sacred Love? From Heav’n its wondrous Notes were given, The Lord is great, and cannot worthily be May make the British Forest prove? (Cecilia oft conversed with Heaven). 13 Hail! Bright Cecilia praised: he is more to be feared than all gods. As Famous as Dodona’s Vocal Grove. Some Angel of the Sacred Choir Hail to thee! As for the gods of the heathen, they are but idols: Did with his Breath the Pipes inspire; Great Patroness of Us and Harmony! but it is the Lord that made the heavens. 3 Hark, each Tree its silence breaks And of their Notes above the just Who, whilst among the Choir above O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: The Box and Fir to talk begin. Resemblance gave, Brisk without Lightness, Thou dost thy former Skill improve, let the whole earth stand in awe of him. This is the sprightly Violin, without dulness Grave. With Rapture of delight Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is That in the Flute distinctly speaks. dost see Thy Favourite Art King: ‘Twas Sympathy their listening Brethren drew 8 Wondrous machine! Make up a Part Of infinite Felicity. and that it is he who hath made the round When to the Thracian Lyre with leafy Wings they To thee the Warbling Lute, Hail, bright Cecilia, Hail to thee! world so fast that it cannot be moved; flew. Tho’ used to Conquest, Great Patroness of Us and Harmony! and how that he shall judge the people must be forced to yield: righteously. 4 ‘Tis Nature’s Voice With thee unable to dispute. 14 My beloved spoke, and said unto me Alleluia. thro’ all the moving Wood Rise up, my love, my fair one and come away. Of Creatures understood: 9 The Airy Violin And lofty Viol quit the Field; For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over The Universal Tongue to none In vain they tune their speaking Strings and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; Of all her numerous Race unknown. To court the cruel Fair, The time of the singing of birds is come, From her it learnt the mighty Art or praise Victorious Kings. And the voice of the turtle is heard in our To court the Ear or strike the Heart: Whilst all thy consecrated Lays land: The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, At once the Passions to express and move; Are to more noble Uses bent; And the vines with the tender grape give We hear, and straight we grieve or hate, And every grateful Note to Heav’n repays forth a good smell. rejoiced or love; In unseen Chains it does The melody it lent. Arise my love, my fair one, come away. the Fancy bind; At once it charms the Sense My Beloved is mine and I am his: and captivates the Mind. 10 In vain the Amorous flute and soft Guitar, He feedeth among the lilies. Jointly labour to inspire 5 Soul of the World Inspired by thee, Wanton Heat and loose Desire; The jarring Seeds of Matter did agree. Whilst thy chaste Airs do gently move Thou did’st the scattered Atoms bind, Seraphic Flames and Heavenly Love. Which, by the Laws of true proportion joined, Made up of various Parts one perfect Harmony.

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HARMONIA SACRA And which all ages have revered, With Death, far, far from thee, too near to Hell. 5 Voluntary in G To look today as fresh and green, But is there no redemption, no relief? Z720 CD7 As when their beauties first were seen. Thou sav’d’st a Magdalen, a thief! O, how agreeable a sight O Jesu! Thy mercy, Lord, once more advance; In guilty night Lord, what is man, lost man These hanging mountains do appear, O give, O give me such a glance Z134 A Divine Hymn Z192 Which the unhappy would invite As Peter had; thy sweet, kind, chiding look Paraphrase of I Samuel, 28:8–20 (anon) William Fuller To finish all their sorrows here, Will change my heart, as it did melt that rock; ALL 1 Lord, what is man, lost man, that thou When their hard fate makes them endure Look on me, sweet Jesu, as thou did’st on him; 6 In guilty night, and hid in false disguise, should’st be Such woes as only death can cure. ‘Tis more than to create, thus to redeem. Forsaken Saul to Endor comes and cries: So mindful of him, that the son of God O, how I solitude adore! Forsook his glory, his abode, That element of noblest wit, Lord, I can suffer thy rebukes SAUL To become a poor, tormented man! Where I have learnt Apollo’s lore, Z136 Woman, arise, call powerful arts together, The deity was shrunk into a span, Without the pains to study it. John Patrick: paraphrase of Psalm 6 And raise the ghost, whom I shall name, up hither. And that for me, O wondrous love, for me. For thy sake I in love am grown 4 Lord, I can suffer thy rebukes, Reveal, ye glorious spirits, when ye knew, With what thy fancy does pursue; When thou dost kindly me chastise; WITCH The way the son of God took to renew But when I think upon my own, But thy fierce wrath I cannot bear; Why shouldst thou wish me die? Forbear my son, Lost man, your vacant places to supply, I hate it for that reason too, O let not that against me rise. Dust thou not know what cruel Saul has done? Blest spirits, tell, Because it needs must hinder me Pity my languishing estate; How he has killed and murdered all Which did excel, From seeing and from serving thee. And those perplexities I feel, That were wise and could on spirits call? Which was more prevalent, O, how I solitude adore! While crushed by thy heavy hand, Your joy, or your astonishment, O let thy gentler touches heal. SAUL That man should be assumed into the deity, In the black, dismal dungeon of despair Lord, for thy goodness’ sake, return Woman, be bold, do but the thing I wish, That for a worm a God should die? Z190 And save my life; for in the grave No harm from Saul shall come to thee for this. Oh! for a quill drawn from your wing William Fuller None can remember thee, nor thou To write the praises of the eternal love, 3 In the black, dismal dungeon of despair, Thankful acknowledgments canst have. WITCH Oh! for a voice like yours to sing Pined with tormenting care, See how I pass my weary days Whom shall I raise or call? I’ll make him hear. That anthem here which once you sung above. Wracked with my fears, In sighs and groans; and when ‘tis night, Halleluia. Drowned in my tears, I drown my bed and self in tears: SAUL With dreadful expectation of my doom, My grief consumes and dims my sight. Old Samuel, let only him appear. O solitude And certain horrid judgment soon to come, Depart ye wicked foes; your hopes A Song upon a Ground Z406 Lord, here I lie, Are dashed; for this my mournful voice WITCH Katherine Pbilips Lost to all hope of liberty, Will bring God nearer to my aid, Alas! 2 O solitude, my sweetest choice! Hence never to remove When you come flocking to rejoice. SAUL Places devoted to the night, But by a miracle of Love, The Lord bath heard my prayer; and those What dost thou fear? Remote from tumult and from noise, Which I scarce dare hope for, or expect, That gaped upon me as their prey How ye my restless thoughts delight! Being guilty of so long, so great neglect. Will vex themselves at their defeat, WITCH O solitude, my sweetest choice! Fool that I was, worthy a sharper rod, And with confusion turn away. Nought else but thee, O heavens, what content is mine, To slight thy courtings, O my God! Alleluia. For thou art Saul and hast beguiled me. To see those trees, which have appeared For thou did’st woo, intreat and grieve, From the nativity of time, Did’st beg cm, to be happy and to live; SAUL But I would not; I chose to dwell Peace, and go on, what seest thou? let me know. Purcell Collection 30

WITCH Plung’d in the confines of despair The earth trembled From their wide wound; I see the gods ascending from below Z142 On our Saviour’s Passion Z197 Francis Quarles Mysterious drops of mighty price, John Patrick: paraphrase of Psalm 130 10 The earth trembled; and heaven’s closed eye Each an offending world’s sufficient sacrifice; SAUL 8 Plunged in the confines of despair, Was loth to see the Lord of glory die: Like common gore they stain Who’s he that comes? To God I cried with fervent prayer; The sky was clad in mourning, and the spheres The blushing earth around, O lend to me a gracious ear; Forgot their harmony; the clouds dropped tears: From all his emptied veins WITCH Not sunk so low but thou canst hear. The arabitious dead arose to give him room; They flow, profuse and prodigal An old man mantled o’er. And every grave did gape to be his tomb; As worthless streams; ah, see ‘em how they fall! Should’st thou against each evil deed The affrighted heavens sent down elegious SAUL In strict severity proceed, thunder; With sick and famished eyes Oh! that is he, let me that ghost adore. Who would be able to abide The world’s foundation loosed to lose its founder. A Religious Elegy (Longing) Z200 Thy censure, and be justified? The impatient temple rent her veil in two, George Herbert SAMUEL To teach our hearts what our sad hearts 12 With sick and famished eyes, Why hast thou robbed me of my rest to see But thou forgiveness dust proclaim, should do: With doubling knees and weary bones, That which I hate, this wicked world and thee? That men may turn and fear thy name. Can senseless things do this, and shall not I To thee my cries, To thy rich grace, O Lord, we fly, Melt one poor drop, to me my Saviour die? To thee my groans, SAUL And on thy promises rely. Drill forth my tears; and trickle one by one, To thee my sighs, my tears ascend: Oh! I’m sore distressed, vexed sore; Till you have pierced this heart of mine, this No end? God has left me and answers me no more; My soul less brooks thy seeming stay stone. My throat, my soul is hoarse, Distressed with war, with inward terrors too, Than guards that wait the approach of day. My heart is withered like a ground For pity’s sake, tell me, what shall I do? O therefore let the good and just My opening eyes are purged Which thou dost curse; In God alone repose their trust. A Divine Song on the Passion of our Saviour Z72 My thoughts turn round SAMUEL 11 My opening eyes are purged and lo! And make me giddy; Lord, I fall, Art thou forlorn of God and com’st to me? The frailty of our state he knows, A dismal scene of mighty woe! Yet call. What can I tell thee then, but misery? His plenteous mercy ever flows. What is it I see? Thy kingdom’s gone into thy neighbour’s race, To humble souls he gracious is, Mankind’s Redeemer stretched upon the cursed Bowels of pity, bear! Thine host shall fall by sword before thy face. And pardons what they have done amiss. tree; Lord of my soul, love of my mind, Tomorrow then, till then farewell, and breathe: With ghastly wounds his body torn, Bow down thine car! Thou and thy son shall be with me beneath. Awake, ye dead His limbs with ruder scourges worn; Let not thy wind A Hymn upon the Last Day Z182 No room for doubt; alas! ‘tis he! Scatter my words, and in the same SAUL Nahum Tate Thy name. Oh! 9 Awake, ye dead, the trumpet calls, See, my soul, the purple pride Look on my sorrows round! Awake, awake, to sleep no more; That adorns his thorny crown; Mark well my furnace! O what flames, WITCH, SAMUEL Hark! from aloft the frozen region a falls With See the streams that hast to meet What heats abound! Farewell. noise so loud it deafs the ocean’s roar; Alarmed, Another headlong bloody tide What griefs, what shames! amazed, the clattering orbs come down: The From his hands and from his side, Voluntary in C virtuous soul alone Appears unmoved while To his no less wounded feet, Consider, Lord; Lord, bow thine car 7 Z717 earth’s Trickling down, trickling down. And hear! foundations shake, Ascends and mocks the Look how the meriting drops gush out Lord Jesu, thou didst bow universal wreck. Thy dying head upon the tree; O be not now Purcell Collection 31

More dead to me! Shall the same band that did create now wound? SACRED MUSIC Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints, in Lord, hear! shall he that made the car Remember, I am built of clay, and must glory everlasting. Not hear? Resolve to my originary dust. CD8 O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine heritage. Govern them, and lift them up for ever. Behold, thy dust doth stir, O, since I have so short a time to live, 1 Te Deum Day by day we magnify Thee, It moves, it creeps to thee, A little case to these my torments give, We praise Thee, O God, and we worship Thy name, ever world without Do not defer To succour me, Thy pile of dust Before I go where all in silence mourn, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. end. wherein each crumb Says ‘Come’. From whose dark shores no travellers return: All the earth doth worship Thee, Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without A land where death, confusion, endless night the Father everlasting. sin. My love, my sweetness, hear! And horror reign, where darkness is their light. To Thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens and all O Lord, have mercy upon us. By these thy feet, at which my heart the powers therein. O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us, as our Lies all the year, Close thine eyes To Thee Cherubin and Seraphim continually do trust is in Thee. Pluck out thy dart, Upon a Quiet Conscience Z184 cry, O Lord, in Thee have I trusted, let me never be And heal my troubled breast, which cries, Francis Quarles Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; confounded. Which dies. 15 Close thine eyes and sleep secure; heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy (Ambrosian Hymn) Thy soul is safe, thy body sure; glory. Ground in C He that guards thee, he thee keeps, The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee. 2 Jubilate Deo (William Croft?) Who never slumbers, never sleeps. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands, 13 ZD221 Thee. serve the Lord with gladness, A quiet conscience in a quiet breast The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee. and come before his presence with a song. O, I’m sick of life Has only peace, has only rest: The holy Church throughout all the world doth Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: A Paraphrase upon Job X, lines 1–18 and 41–46 The music and the mirth of kings acknowledge Thee. it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves; Z140 Are out of tune, unless she sings; The Father of an infinite majesty; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. George Sandys Then close thine eyes in peace, and rest secure, Thine honourable, true and only Son; O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, 14 O, I’m sick of life! nor will control No sleep so sweet as thine, no rest so sure. Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter. and into his courts with praise, My passion, but in bitterness of soul Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Thus tear the air: what should thy wrath incense Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. name. To punish him who knows not his offence? When Thou tookst upon thee to deliver man, For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting, Ah! dust thou in oppression take delight? Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. and his truth endures from generation to Wilt thou thy servant fold in shades of night, When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of generation. death, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, And smile on wicked counsels? Dost thou see Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heav’n to all and to the Holy Ghost. With eyes of flesh? Is Truth concealed from thee? believers. as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever What, are thy days as frail as ours? Or can Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory shall be, Thy years determine like the age of man, of the Father. world without end. That thou should’st my delinquencies enquire, We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge. Amen. And with variety of tortures tire? We therefore pray Thee, help thy servants, (Psalm 100) whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious Cannot my known integrity remove blood. Thy cruel plagues? Wilt thou remorseless prove? Ah! wilt thou thine own workmanship confound? Purcell Collection 32

3 My Beloved Spake Help us, O God of our salvation, FUNERAL SENTENCES SONGS My beloved spake and said unto me, for the glory of Thy Name; rise, rise my love, my fair one and come away. O deliver us and be merciful unto our sins, FOR QUEEN MARY CD9 For lo, the winter is past, for Thy Name’s sake. the rain is over and gone. So we, that are thy people, 8 Funeral March (instrumental) Strike the viol The flowers appear on the earth, and the sheep of Thy pasture, 1 Strike the viol, touch the lute, and the time of the singing of birds is come. shall give Thee thanks for ever, 9 Man that is born of a woman Man that is born of a woman wake the harp, inspire the flute: Alleluia. and will always be shewing forth Thy praise sing your Patroness's praise, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. from one generation to another. hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. sing in cheerful and harmonious lays. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, (Psalm 79, vv. 5, 8, 9, 14) From Birthday Ode to Queen Mary. and the vines with the tender grape give a good He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, 'Come Ye Sons of Art, Away', 1694 smell. 6 Remember not, Lord, our offences Rise, rise my love, etc. Remember not, Lord, our offences and ne’er continued in one stay. (from the Book of Common Prayer, 1660) The Queen's Epicedium My beloved is mine and I am his. nor the offences of our forefathers; 2 Incassum, Lesbia, incassum rogas, Alleluia. but spare us, good Lord, 10 In the midst of life lyra mea, mens est immodulata: neither take Thou vengeance of our sins, terrarium ore lachymarum pleno, 4 O God, Thou art my God but spare us, good Lord, In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, dolorum pleno, O God, Thou art my God: spare Thy people, rogitas tu cantilenam? early will I seek Thee. whom Thou hast redeemed but of Thee, O Lord, Who for our sins are it justly displeased? My soul thirsted for Thee, with Thy most precious blood, En nymphas! En pastores! my flesh also longed after Thee and be not angry with us for ever. Yet, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, Caput omne redinat in a barren and dry land where no water is. Spare us, good Lord. junctorum instar, Thus have I looked for Thee in holiness, (from the Litany) deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. admodum fletur, that I might behold Thy power and glory, nec Galatea canit, For Thy loving kindness is better than life itself: 7 Hear my prayer, O Lord (from the Book of Common Prayer, 1660) nee ludit Tityrus agris; my lips shall praise Thee. Hear my prayer, O Lord non currant oves, As long as I live will I magnify Thee on this manner and let my crying come unto Thee. 11 Canzona (instrumental) moerore perditi. and lift up my hands in Thy name, (Psalm 102, v.1) 12 Thou knowest, Lord Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, Regina, heu, Because Thou hast been my helper, arcadiae regina periit, therefore under the shadow of Thy wings shut not Thy merciful ears unto our prayers; but spare us, Lord most holy, O damnum non exprimendum, will I rejoice. non suspiriis, non gemitibus imis. Alleluia. O God most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, pectoris aut queruli (Psalm 63, vv. 1–5, 8) singultre turbido, Thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, miseros Arcades! 5 Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry? O quam lugentes! Lord, how long wilt Thou be angry? for any pains of death, to fall away from Thee. (from the Book of Common Prayer, 1660) Suorum gaudium aculorum mirum abiit Shall Thy jealousy burn like fire for ever? nunquam, O nunquam revcrsurum! O remember not our old sins, 13 Funeral March (instrumental) Stella sua fixa but have mercy upon us, and that soon, coelum ultra lucet. for we are come to great misery. Purcell Collection 33

Elegy on Queen Mary’s Death, 1694 to pleasures that can never cloy, your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare Here the Deities approve that you are music everywhere. 3 Here the Deities approve Pleasures invade both eye and ear, the God of Music and of Love; so fierce the transports are thy wound, all the talents they have lent you, and all my senses feasted are; all the blessings they have sent you, though yet the treat is only sound, pleased to see what they bestow, sure I must perish by your charms, live and thrive so well below. unless you save me in your arms. From the Ode to St Cecilia Welcome to all the From Birthday Ode to Queen Mary, 1683 pleasures',1683 An Evening Hymn Sweeter than roses 7 Now that the sun hath veiled his light, 4 Sweeter than roses, or cool evening breeze, and bid the world good night, on a warm flowery shore to the soft bed my body I dispose: was the dear, dear kiss, first trembling, made me but where shall my soul repose? freeze; Dear God, even in thy arms, then shot like fire all over. and can there be any so sweet security? What magic has victorious love! Then to thy rest, 0 my soul! For all I touch or see And singing, praise the mercy since that dear kiss hourly prove: that prolongs thy days. all is love to me. Alleluia! From 'Pausanius' Dr William Fuller

Music for a while 5 Music for a while shall all your cares beguile: wondering how your pains were cased, and disdaining to the pleased, till Alecto free the dead from their eternal bands, till the snakes drop from her head, and the whip from out her hands. Music for a while shall all your cares beguile. From Oedipus. 1692

If music be the food of love 6 If music be the food of love sing on till I am filled with joy; for then my listening soul you move Purcell Collection 34