Sandra Tuppen
Purcell in the eighteenth century: music for the ‘Quality, Gentry, and others’
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Early Music following peer review. The version of record, Sandra Tuppen; Purcell in the 18th century: music for the ‘Quality, Gentry, and others’, Early Music, Volume 43, Issue 2, 1 May 2015, Pages 233–245, is available online at https://academic.oup.com/em/article/43/2/233/398873. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cav012.
Abstract
Henry Purcell was the only composer of his generation to be honoured with performances of his music at both the Academy of Ancient Music and Concerts of Ancient Music in the 18th century.
Both organisations also programmed 18th-century music for The Tempest believing it to be by
Purcell. Excerpts from Purcell’s theatre works were performed at the Noblemen and
Gentlemen’s Catch Club too, where the Earl of Sandwich and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn introduced much of the Purcell repertoire; Sandwich was also a key figure in the promotion of
Purcell’s music at the Concerts of Ancient Music. Although the Academy of Ancient Music’s instrumental parts for King Arthur do not exhibit as many signs of modernisation as do their manuscripts of Dido and Aeneas, some amendments to the musical text are found there, as well as in the Catch Club’s manuscripts of Purcell’s music. Purcell’s works were generally well received by the press, and newspaper reviews provide evidence of concerts of his music taking inspiration – and sometimes performers – from the Concerts of Ancient Music. The misattributed
Tempest was seemingly one of the most popular ‘Purcell’ works with late 18th-century audiences; it entered the canon and remained there until Margaret Laurie made a conclusive case
against its being by Purcell and suggested John Weldon as the likely composer. Dr. Laurie has also removed 18th-century accretions from the score of King Arthur, and we are now seeing an end to the perpetuation of 18th-century tastes and prejudices in editions of Purcell’s music.
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Introduction
The role that 18th-century musical organisations played in the dissemination and performance of
Henry Purcell’s music has not hitherto been investigated fully. Yet the activities of 18th-century music antiquarians profoundly influenced thinking about Purcell right through to the middle of the 20th century, and the programming choices of a few key individuals helped propel certain works into the musical canon. In this article I examine the performance history of Purcell’s music in the late 18th century through the activities of three rather different London-based bodies: an antiquarian society, an aristocratic music club and a public concert-giving organisation. They were not the only bodies performing Purcell’s music (a few of his songs were still heard in public concerts, and certain anthems remained a staple of cathedral choirs), but they were at the forefront of a revival of interest in Purcell’s music in the late 18th century, and a clear path can be traced between these three organisations, and thence to performances elsewhere in
London and the provinces.
The Academy of Ancient Music
The organisation founded in 1726 as the Academy of Vocal Music was directed by Johann
Christoph Pepusch from the early 1730s to his death in 1752, and under his leadership changed its name to the Academy of Ancient Music.1 This society of professional musicians and gentlemen amateurs met to perform and listen to 16th- and 17th-century music, though it also included contemporary music in its repertoire.2 In 1761, the Academy published a booklet entitled The words of such pieces as are most usually performed by the Academy of Ancient
Music. It contains texts for just three of Purcell’s dramatic works (King Arthur, The Indian
Queen and Oedipus3) and two anthems, ‘O give thanks unto the Lord’ and ‘O God, thou art my
God’. Also attributed to Purcell are Macbeth (by Richard Leveridge) and The Tempest. Margaret
Laurie has demonstrated that Purcell almost certainly wrote only the song ‘Dear pretty youth’ for
The Tempest, and she has made a persuasive case for John Weldon being the composer of the remainder of the music that became associated with Purcell’s name in the 18th century.4 She notes the existence of a manuscript dating from about 1750, in which the whole work is attributed
– seemingly for the first time – to Purcell.5 In whatever way the attribution error originated, the
Tempest music was being performed at the Academy’s concerts, with Purcell’s name attached to all of the music, no later than 1761 (the date of the Academy wordbook).
Although only these few works by or attributed to Purcell were included in the Academy wordbook, several of them are substantial pieces. In fact, all the large-scale works included therein are attributed to either Handel or Purcell, suggesting that Purcell's reputation was still strong enough in the 1760s for him to take the main billing on a concert programme. These were
not mere excerpts: the King Arthur entry in the wordbook contains the words for all the sung portions of the work, apart from ‘Your hay it is mow’d’ and the last two verses of ‘Come, if you dare’.6 Similarly, the text for The Indian Queen contains all the sung elements of that work apart from the final masque, for which Daniel Purcell composed the music. King Arthur had been performed by the Academy as early as the 1740s,7 and the sacrifice music from Act V of The
Indian Queen in 1746.8 The Academy seemingly first performed Purcell’s Te Deum in 1768,9 and in 1774 it gave what was probably its first performance of Dido and Aeneas.10
Tim Eggington notes that, in 1784, when the Academy was transformed from a private society into a subscription concert series, there was a move towards a lighter type of programme, with short arias replacing lengthy choral works.11 In 1786 someone evidently thought that the
Academy was no longer according Purcell’s music the attention it deserved. The following letter was printed in The general advertiser on 17 March of that year:
From my infernal abode, March 13.
To the Managers of the Academy of Ancient Music at Freemason’s Hall.
Gentlemen,
Were it not that a nocturnal apparition might be the means of terrifying your fair and
innocent wives, and as we spirits affect not the broad and open daylight, I have
commissioned a Printer’s Devil to demand of you, why my compositions have been so
utterly neglected this season? If I obtain not due redress, and that too speedily, depend on
it, you will not find me when you arrive in those regions so disposed to harmony as I was
upon earth.
Yours, as you behove,
The Ghost of Purcell
A year later, Purcell’s earthly advocates might have felt better satisfied with the attention he was receiving from the Academy. It gave another performance of Dido and Aeneas, and on 10
February 1787 The gazetteer and new daily advertiser was able to print the following report:
The Academy of Ancient Music gave their fifth Concert on Thursday last. The select
parts of the Masque in King Arthur displayed the noble simplicity of Purcel’s music. The
beauty, the taste, and expression of his melodies can only be equalled by the richness and
the fine effect of his harmony.
That the Academy held Purcell’s music in higher regard than that of his English contemporaries can be seen by the absence of any of their works from the 1761 wordbook. It includes more works by or attributed to Palestrina than by any other composer excepting Handel, with 17 pieces bearing his name. It also includes the works of other Italians of the 16th and 17th centuries, among them Marenzio and Stradella, and of English composers from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, including Byrd and Gibbons. Works by later English composers, including Croft and
Boyce, are also present, but music of other Restoration composers is notable by its absence. The wordbook contains no works of Locke or Blow, nor of any of Purcell’s lesser contemporaries.
The Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club
The Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Catch Club was founded in 1761 to encourage the composition and appreciation of glees, catches and canons.12 Its members held meetings in a tavern, where they enjoyed evenings of singing, dining and drinking. The presidency of the club was rotated among its members, with a new president being elected for each meeting; the club also elected professional musicians as ‘privileged members’. The Catch Club offered prizes for the composition of new glees and catches, but also performed a substantial amount of older music, as its archive shows.13 Its manuscript scores, which were copied by its secretary Thomas Warren, reveal not only what was in the club’s repertoire, but also the name of the member who first brought a particular piece to a meeting or selected it for revival (Table 1).
Table 1. Catches by and attributed to Purcell in the repertoire of the Noblemen and
Gentlemen’s Catch Club, late 18th century.
Title Introduced by Revived by ‘Here’s that will challenge all John Montagu, 4th Earl of - the Fair’ Sandwich ‘I gave her cakes and I gave Thomas Warren Lancelot Brown junior (1781) her ale’ and Richard Gamon (1781) ‘Jack thou’rt a toper’ (catch Thomas Arne George Venables-Vernon, 2nd in Bonduca) Baron Vernon (1780) ‘Now we are met and Jonathan Battishill - humours agree’ ‘Once, twice, thrice I Julia Colonel Windus Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough tried’ (1781) ‘Sir Walter enjoying his Sandwich Gamon (1781) damsel’ ‘Soldier, take off thy wine’ Richard Phelps - ‘Sum up all the delights’ Alexander Montgomerie, - 10th Earl of Eglinton ‘The Macedon youth’ Warren - ‘‘Tis women makes us love’ Sir George Armytage -
‘Who comes there? Stand!’ Thomas Lewin William Ward, 3rd Viscount Dudley and Ward (1791) Misattributed - ‘Fie, nay prithee, John’ Sandwich Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of (John Blow) Chesterfield (1780) ‘Let’s live good honest lives’ Warren Vernon (1780) (William Cranford?) ‘Tom, making a mantua for a Warren John Ward, 2nd Viscount lass’ Dudley and Ward (1781) (Henry Hall)
As Table 1 makes plain, new repertoire was introduced both by the nobility and gentry and by the professional musicians, with the Earl of Sandwich and Thomas Warren introducing the greatest number of catches by or attributed to Purcell. All but one are in Book 1, indicating that they were introduced in the early years of the club’s existence.14
Catch Club members did not restrict themselves to singing catches and glees: seven pieces from
Purcell’s theatre works were introduced, including ‘Fear no Danger’ from Dido and Aeneas and
‘Fairest Isle’ from King Arthur (Table 2). The person who introduced most of the ‘non-catch’
Purcell repertoire to the club was Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 4th Baronet (1749-89). Wynn was an MP and great patron of the arts, and a keen collector of Purcell’s music.15 [ILLUSTRATION]
Table 2. Other Purcell works in the repertoire of the Catch Club.
Title Catch Introduced by Revived by Club Book. Theatre music ‘Sing all ye muses’, from 1 General (later Sir Robert) - The comical history of Rich Don Quixote, part I (AB with bass accompaniment) ‘Come let us agree’, 1 Sandwich Sir Francis Basset (1780) from Timon of Athens ‘Fairest isle’, from King 2 advertising, in 1763 Mr [John Hayes?] St Leger Arthur (2nd treble added (1781) by William Hayes, 1763) ‘Fear no danger’ from 7 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn George Finch, 9th Earl of Dido and Aeneas Winchilsea (1784) ‘May the god of wit 7 Wynn James Cecil, 7th Earl of inspire’ from The Fairy Salisbury (1784) Queen ‘Fairest isle’, from King 9 Wynn Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Arthur (in 4 parts) Palmerston (1785) ‘To arms’ and ‘Britons 9 Wynn Frederick Augustus Berkeley, strike home’ from 5th Earl of Berkeley (1785) Bonduca Ode ‘Kindly treat Maria’s 6 Wynn William Ward, later 3rd day’ from Celebrate this Viscount Dudley and Ward festival (1783)
On 27 May 1780 the Catch Club resolved:
That for the future the President of the day do name three Performances exclusive of those
that are performed in the usual rotation, beginning with the first Volume in our
Collection, by which means many valuable pieces will be reviv’d - which have been for
some time buried in Oblivion.16
The minutes continue:
When the Club is of Opinion that all the pieces in the first Volume which deserve
attention have been heard, it will be proper to go on to the second Volume and so
progressively on thro the whole Collection.17
Although members selected music from Book 1 at some 20 meetings, only about half of Purcell’s catches were evidently deemed worthy of revival (see final column of Table 1). Purcell’s ‘non- catch’ pieces appear to have been held in higher regard, as all but one were revived (Table 2, final column).18 The popularity of ‘Fairest Isle’ – still among the best known of Purcell’s works today – is already apparent: the Catch Club had two versions of it in its repertoire (a four-part
SATB version, with the inner parts largely derived from the instrumental prelude, and one for two trebles and a bass, with a second treble part by William Hayes). [ILLUSTRATION]
The Concerts of Ancient Music
Six of the members of the Catch Club, among them the Earl of Sandwich and Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn, went on in 1776 to form another musical organisation, one whose impact on
18th-century musical life would be far more widely felt. This was the Concerts of Ancient
Music, also known as the Ancient Concerts. Programming was shared among the directors, and on the night the performances were led by the musician Joah Bates.19 The Concerts of Ancient
Music quickly became one of the most celebrated musical bodies in London. It hired the best
professional musicians to perform at its concerts, and maintained an exclusive subscription list.
The organisation gained extra cachet in 1785, when George III and Queen Charlotte became its patrons.20 James Gillray’s satirical eye was soon drawn to it. [COLOUR ILLUSTRATION:
James Gillray’s Ancient Music]
For the period from 1779 to 1800 a complete run of programmes survives, containing texts of the vocal pieces.21 In addition, George III’s own library holds a manuscript catalogue of the pieces performed.22 We should not overestimate the place of Purcell’s music (or indeed of English music generally) at the Concerts of Ancient Music, especially in comparison with that of Handel.
William Weber has analysed the programmes of works performed in the first 15 years of the society’s existence.23 I have extrapolated information from his data which shows that between
1776 and 1790, 59% of the pieces performed were by Handel, 29% were by other non-English composers, and just 12% were English pieces. Of that 12%, a third were pieces by or attributed to Purcell (The Tempest is included here). I have also analysed the programmes for 1791-1800; in that decade, an even greater percentage of the pieces programmed (some 67%) were by
Handel. English music made up a mere 6% (Purcell being a third of that again), though this figure was not maintained at an even level throughout the decade.
Despite such a very small percentage of the overall programming being devoted to Purcell’s music, he was nevertheless the single most performed English composer at the Concerts of
Ancient Music in the 18th century. As was the case with the Academy of Ancient Music’s programming, Purcell stands as the sole representative of English music of his generation: the other English music consisted of 16th- and early 17th-century madrigals, by Morley and
Weelkes, for example, and 18th-century music, by such composers as Avison and Boyce. Of the works of Purcell that were performed, theatre music featured most prominently, although odes and sacred pieces were also included on occasion. There was less reliance on mad songs than in the public theatres, with his famous song ‘Bess of Bedlam’ receiving just one airing (Table 3).
Table 3. Purcell works performed at the Concerts of Ancient Music, 1776-1800.
Work Part or song Number of performances Dramatic works King Arthur Various extracts 25 Dido and Aeneas ‘Fear no danger’ 18 The Indian Queen ‘Ye twice ten hundred deities’ (Act III) 14 Acts II and III together Sacrifice Scene (Act V) Bonduca almost complete 10 Don Quixote, Part III ‘From rosy bowers’ 7 Don Quixote, Part I ‘Let the dreadful engines’ 4 Timon of Athens ‘Hark, how the songsters’ 4 Tyrannic Love ‘Hark, my Daridcar’ 2 Massacre of Paris ‘Thy genius, lo’ 2 Don Quixote, Part I ‘Sing all ye muses’ 1
Odes Celebrate this festival almost complete 10 (+ 1 of ‘Kindly treat Maria’s day’ only) Sound the trumpet ‘Let Caesar and Urania live’ 2 Hail, bright Cecilia First chorus only 1
Sacred Te Deum 5 ‘O give thanks’ 2 Jubilate 1
Song Bess of Bedlam 1
Misattributed The Tempest (John almost complete, though without Purcell’s 17 Weldon?) ‘Dear pretty youth’
Of the 25 performances of music from King Arthur, many were of an entire scene. Long sections of The Indian Queen were also performed, and at each performance of the music from Bonduca, almost all the vocal music was included. The popularity of The Tempest in the late 18th century is evident from the 17 performances of the score, almost complete. The ode Celebrate this festival was seemingly another favourite with audiences.
William Weber states that ‘it was undoubtedly Bates who shaped the repertory and social style of the Ancient Concerts’, but concedes that a few of the directors were also involved in planning the concerts.24 If one looks at the directors named on the programmes of the 1780s and 1790s, it becomes clear that the choice of pieces was not the work of one man. Several patterns emerge: much more Purcell was programmed under the directorship of some individuals than others, and some works were programmed only when certain directors were in charge. The duet ‘Let Caesar and Urania live’, for example, from Purcell’s ode Sound the trumpet, was twice programmed by
Sir Richard Jebb, but chosen by no one else.
George III also had an interest in the programming. In a note dated 23 March 1786, the King wrote:
Lord Carmarthen’s List of Musick for next Wednesday is very excellent and meets with
the Approbation of those whose Opinion of the Subject he wished to know; his
introducing Mrs Billington if he can get her to sing pathetick Songs and not to over grace
them will be doing an essential Service to the Concert. GR.25
Table 4 shows the number of times each director programmed music by Purcell between 1780 and 1800.26
Table 4. Concerts of Ancient Music Directors, 1780-1800, with number of performances of
Purcell programmed by each.
Director Number of Notes Purcell performances John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (d. 1792) 22 Henry Bayly, Lord Paget, later 1st Earl of Uxbridge (d. 11 1812) Francis Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen, later 5th 9 Director from Duke of Leeds (d. 1799) 1786 Sir Richard Jebb, Bart. (d. 1787) 8 Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (d. 1816) 7 Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield (d. 1815) 6 Director from 1792 Thomas Egerton, Baron Grey de Wilton (d. 1814) 6 Director from 1786 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart (d. 1789) 3 Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (d. 1793) 3 John Bligh, 4th Earl of Darnley (d. 1831) 2 Director from 1800 Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue (d. 1841) 2 Director from 1800 William Capel, Viscount Malden (d. 1799) 1 Director from 1794 Right Hon. Humphrey Morrice (d. 1785) 1 John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward (d. 1788) 0 John Egerton, Bishop of Durham (d. 1787) 0
The key role played by the Earl of Sandwich is immediately clear. He oversaw 22 performances of music by Purcell in 12 seasons, as well as programming music from The Tempest seven times.
Sandwich’s importance as a promoter of English music was recognised by his contemporaries. A reviewer of the concert on 14 February 1787, which had been directed by Sandwich, wrote the following in The morning chronicle:
We ought not to close this account without a tribute of thanks to the President of the
night, who, seldom losing an opportunity at these Concerts of bringing forward the works
of excellent English composers, may properly be styled, the “Protector of National Genius
- departed.”27
An analysis of the total number of performances of Purcell’s works given by the Concerts of
Ancient Music between its formation in 1776 and the year 1800 reveals that the number of performances fell away sharply in 1790, with no Purcell, or just one work, performed per year in the first half of the 1790s, before performances picked up again in 1796. This falling away can be attributed to the deaths of Jebb in 1787, Wynn in 1789 and most particularly to Sandwich’s death in 1792. The increase in the late 1790s is largely due to the Duke of Leeds’s having programmed several of Purcell’s works in the years before his death in 1799, and then to the inclusion of more
Purcell in the programmes of the new directors Fortescue, Darnley and Chesterfield. The last years of the 18th century saw several works added to the programmes for the first time: ‘Let the dreadful engines’ from the first part of Don Quixote was first performed at the concerts in 1796;
‘Thy genius, lo’ from the Massacre of Paris was introduced in 1798 and ‘Hark, my Daridcar’ from Tyrannic Love appeared in 1799.
A number of the society’s directors were active as collectors of music. The collection of
Viscount Fitzwilliam, now preserved in the museum bearing his name, is well known.
Fitzwilliam’s library contained manuscripts of all the Purcell pieces he programmed, including
Celebrate this festival and part of Hail, bright Cecilia.28 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who, as we have seen, also promoted Purcell’s music at the Catch Club, owned copies of King Arthur, The
Indian Queen and The Tempest, and programmed them all at the Concerts of Ancient Music. For those interested in performance history, it is fortunate that manuscripts connected with the
Academy of Ancient Music, Concerts of Ancient Music and Catch Club survive.29 That there were links between the Academy and Concerts of Ancient Music can be seen from a surviving manuscript of the ‘Academy’ version of Dido which bears the stamp of the Concerts of Ancient
Music.30
A set of manuscript parts for Purcell’s King Arthur, recently acquired by the British Library, can be linked with the Academy of Ancient Music’s performance in 1787, which featured the bass singer John Sale.31 The parts were probably prepared from a score of King Arthur copied in about 1738 by John Travers (c.1703-58), as they contain a few variant readings otherwise found only in this source. 32 Margaret Laurie has suggested that Travers’s score was perhaps copied for the Academy of Ancient Music.33 The concordances between the score and the recently- discovered Academy parts provide further evidence of an Academy connection for the score.
There are nonetheless a few places where the 1787 Academy parts for King Arthur deviate from
Travers’s score: they include instances of complex or spiky rhythms being smoothed out, word underlay being changed and the occasional melodic alteration. ‘Let not a moonborn elf’ from
Act II provides some typical examples of rhythmic and melodic simplification (see Bar 8 of
Ex.1a-b, and Bars 42, 46 and 48 of Ex.1c-d). Although these rhythmic alterations are similar to those observed by Ellen Harris in Arne’s adaptation of Purcell’s King Arthur, 34 the rhythms are not regularized in an identical manner, so the Academy’s King Arthur parts do not appear to derive from Arne’s score.
Ex.1a Henry Purcell, ‘Let not a moonborn elf’ from King Arthur, Purcell Society Vol.26, ed. D. Arundell, rev. M. Laurie (London, 1971).
Ex.1b Henry Purcell, ‘Let not a moonborn elf’ from King Arthur, Academy of Ancient Music MS, British Library MS Mus. 146, f.3v.
Ex.1c Henry Purcell, ‘Let not a moonborn elf’ from King Arthur, Purcell Society Vol.26, ed. D. Arundell, rev. M. Laurie (London, 1971).
Ex.1d Henry Purcell, ‘Let not a moonborn elf’ from King Arthur, Academy of Ancient Music MS, British Library MS Mus. 146, f.4r.
It should be stressed, however, that the number of deviations from earlier sources is small in the
Academy’s King Arthur parts. This is in sharp contrast to the surviving Academy sources for
Dido and Aeneas which, as Ellen Harris has noted, differ considerably from the most authoritative surviving source of that work, for example in their regularizing or smoothing out of rhythmic and harmonic elements and treatment of cadences.35 Of Dido, Harris writes that ‘there is hardly a cadence in the entire opera that is not changed in some way in the late eighteenth- century manuscripts’.36 This is certainly not the case with their manuscript of King Arthur.
A much more detailed examination of the surviving 18th century sources of Purcell’s music is needed to establish the degree to which his works were amended. This is a topic to which justice cannot be done in a short article. Suffice it to say that the Catch Club manuscripts also include examples of harmonic and melodic alterations to Purcell’s music. Here, Purcell’s harmony was sometimes changed to avoid dissonant harmony, as in ‘Sum up all the delights’, where the augmented triad at the end of bar 11 is avoided by changing the last two notes of the first treble part (Ex.2a-b).
Ex.2a Henry Purcell, ‘Sum up all the delights’, Ex.2b Henry Purcell, ‘Sum up all the delights’, Purcell Society Vol.22A, ed. I. Spink (London, Catch Club MS, British Library H.2788., p.56. 2000).
Purcell’s works, as performed by the Concerts of Ancient Music, were generally well received by newspaper critics, though they could not resist the occasional negative comment about his word- painting. In The morning chronicle of 20 April 1785, the reviewer wrote:
The music for the night was appointed by Sir Richard Jebb. He prepared an excellent and
varied bill of fare….Purcel, whose early death every lover of musick, and more
particularly every Englishman laments, though it must be confessed that he often
sacrificed to the false taste of the times, by regarding words rather than sentiments,
heightened the repast with his sweet duet, “Let Caesar and Urania live”.
Two years later, the Morning chronicle’s critic (probably the same one as before) made another such reference:
In the second act, Purcell’s “Te Deum” was introduced. This work abounds with variety,
and displays many marks of genius, with fewer tricks of playing upon words (the
miserable false wit of that day as well as the present) than we generally meet with in
Purcell’s compositions.37
Other reviews were less positive. This is The general advertiser, for 10 February 1786:
…We cannot say, that the chorus from King Arthur, by Purcel, of “Hither this way, this
way bend,” delighted us so much [as Handel’s Scipio overture]. Miss Harwood sung, but
neither the air nor the chorus have a pleasing effect. They were well executed.
The work to receive the harshest criticism, though, was Purcell’s Jubilate. The reviewer in The morning chronicle of 4 April 1788 recorded that:
Purcell’s favourite duet and chorus “Fear no danger,” gave much satisfaction. The duet
was pleasingly performed by the Miss Abrams. “Jubilate Deo,” introduced in the first act,
and attributed to this author, (we say attributed, for we hope it is not Henry Purcell’s) has
nothing but the name to recommend it. From the chromatick and unpleasant strains given
to the verse, “Be ye sure that the Lord he is God,” one would imagine that the author
concluded this assurance called for the expression of fear rather than joy.
The Jubilate did not feature in any further programmes of the Concerts of Ancient Music in the
18th century.
Influence of the Concerts of Ancient Music
The Concerts of Ancient Music not only had great social cachet, but also influenced programming at other public concerts. Numerous newspaper advertisements for concerts in the late 18th century noted that the music would be ‘as performed at the Concerts of Ancient Music’.
In 1788, several papers proclaimed that a benefit concert at Hanover Square in May was to feature ‘The Musick in the Tempest, as performed at the Ancient Concert in Tottenham-street,
Purcel’, together with ‘Fear no danger’ from Dido and Aeneas and, for that night only, the ‘Song of Purcell’s Mad Bess, by Madam Mara’.38
On several occasions, Purcell’s music was performed at the Concerts of Ancient Music and repeated elsewhere shortly afterwards with the same soloist. On 23 February 1797 The true
Briton reported on a performance at the Concerts of Ancient Music of ‘Let the dreadful engines’ a few days earlier, noting that ‘Bartleman was excellent indeed’ in this music ‘from our famous
Purcel’. On 3 May 1797 The morning post carried a notice for Samuel Harrison’s benefit concert, which was to feature ‘the Performers belonging to the Concert of Ancient Music’, and
James Bartleman performing ‘Let the dreadful engines’. This is the first reference that I have traced in the press to a concert performance of ‘Let the dreadful engines’ outside the Concerts of
Ancient Music.
On 7 February 1798, the Duke of Leeds programmed ‘Come if you dare’ from King Arthur at the
Concerts of Ancient Music for the first time, with Harrison as soloist. (Although the rest of the first act of King Arthur had been performed many times, this last portion had not.) Later the same month, the piece was included in billings for the Lenten Oratorios at Covent Garden, this time to be sung by Madame Mara,39 and for Harrison’s benefit concert in April of the same year.40
‘Hark, my Daridcar’ from Tyrannic Love first appeared on a Concerts of Ancient Music programme in May 1799, performed by Harrison, and he sang it there again in March 1800. A month later, it featured in his benefit concert, as did the Concerts of Ancient Music performers, and once again this appears to be its earliest performance outside the Concerts of Ancient
Music.41
The involvement of Concerts of Ancient Music directors and their families in events outside
London, at their country seats or in towns where they had interests, led to performances of
Purcell’s music at concerts in the provinces. The morning herald of 30 July 1782 advertised the
Three Choirs Festival, in Worcester, with a notice about a grand miscellaneous concert featuring
‘the following approved Pieces from the Noblemen’s Concerts of Ancient Music’. Among the pieces were the music from The Tempest and Bonduca, and the Frost Scene from King Arthur.
The Bishop of Worcester and the Hon. William Ward, MP for Worcester, were the stewards of the event; both were also subscribers to the Concerts of Ancient Music, and William Ward’s half- brother, John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward, was a director of the organisation.
According to The world and fashionable advertiser of 13 August 1787, a festival of music in
Liverpool was to include music from The Tempest. On this occasion, one of the stewards was
Thomas Egerton, Baron Grey de Wilton, another director of the Concerts of Ancient Music. Grey de Wilton had programmed the music from The Tempest at the Concerts of Ancient Music a year earlier.
Conclusions
It is ironic that the misattributed Tempest music was one of the most popular ‘Purcell’ works with late 18th-century audiences. Authentic Purcell was even compared unfavourably to The Tempest: writing after a performance of Purcell’s ode Celebrate this festival at the Concerts of Ancient
Music, the Morning chronicle reviewer remarked that ‘Though we admire some parts of it much, we cannot think it equal to his music in the Tempest.’42 It is doubly ironic that ‘Dear pretty
youth’ - the one Tempest song definitely by Purcell - was omitted when The Tempest was performed at the Concerts of Ancient Music. It seems likely that the features of The Tempest that make it unlike Purcell, notably its rather more Italianate style, were exactly what made it more acceptable than ‘real’ Purcell to 18th-century audiences. The Tempest entered the musical canon and remained associated with Purcell’s name for two centuries, appearing in Benjamin
Goodison’s collected edition of Purcell’s works in about 1790, and in the Purcell Society edition of 1912, edited by Edward Dent. Several early Purcell scholars attempted to argue that Purcell absorbed the Italian style in his final years,43 while others harboured doubts about the work, but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that a conclusive case against its being by Purcell was made, by Margaret Laurie.44 As for King Arthur, the Purcell work performed most frequently at the Concerts of Ancient Music, it, too, has had a long journey from the 18th century. The kinds of rhythmic simplification found in the 1787 Academy parts for King Arthur were carried over to the Musical Antiquarian Society edition published in 1843, and to J.A. Fuller
Maitland’s edition of 1897. The Musical Antiquarian Society edition included music for the solo
‘St. George’, which Margaret Laurie, once again, has identified as probably not by Purcell.45
With hindsight, we can see that the 1960s movement to remove more than two centuries’ worth of accretions from Purcell’s music was led by Margaret Laurie, whose courage, imagination and formidable scholarly technique are exactly what was, and still is, needed to challenge these 18th- and 19th-century value judgements successfully.
1 T. Eggington, The advancement of music in Enlightenment England: Benjamin Cooke and the Academy of Ancient
Music (Woodbridge, 2014), p.1.
2 W. Weber, The rise of musical classics in eighteenth-century England (Oxford, 1992), p.66.
3 The Academy apparently had in its repertoire two settings of the invocation scene from Dryden and Lee’s play
Oedipus, as the 1761 wordbook gives the names of both Purcell and Galliard above the text. A manuscript score and set of parts of John Ernest Galliard’s setting are in the Royal College of Music Library, at MSS 6861 and 9605.
4 M. Laurie, ‘Did Purcell set “The Tempest”?’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 90th session (1963-4), pp.43-57.
5 Laurie, ‘Did Purcell set “The Tempest”?’, p.46.
6 As Margaret Laurie observes in her critical commentary to King Arthur, ‘Your hay it is mow’d’ is not present in any of the main manuscript sources of the work. See Henry Purcell, King Arthur, ed. D. Arundell, rev. M. Laurie for the Purcell Society (London, 1971), p.199.
7 See The words belonging to the musick in King Arthur: a dramatic opera, composed by the late Mr. Henry Purcell.
And the late Queen’s funeral anthem, composed by Mr. Handel. Performed at the Academy of Antient Musick on
Thursday March 4, 1741[/2] (London, 1742).
8 See Motets, madrigals, and other pieces; performed by the Academy of Ancient Music, on Thursday, April 24, 1746
(London, 1746).
9 Eggington, The advancement of music in Enlightenment England, p.95.
10 The wordbook was printed as The Loves of Dido and Aeneas: An opera written by Nahum Tate, Esq. and set to music by Mr. Henry Purcell performed, with several other pieces by the Academy of Ancient Music on Thursday,
April 21, 1774 (London, 1774).
11 Eggington, The advancement of music in Enlightenment England, p.250.
12 For a history of the Catch Club, see B. Robins, Catch and glee culture in eighteenth-century England
(Woodbridge, 2006), pp.32-71.
13 The Catch Club archive is now preserved in the British Library, at shelfmarks E.1858, a-z, aa-dd, H.2788, a-z, aa- zz, aaa-ggg, and contains minute books, membership lists and the printed and manuscript scores from which the performers sang. The manuscript scores comprise a series of 20 numbered volumes, in multiple copies.
14 ‘Who comes there? Stand!’ is in Book 16.
15 Wynn’s Purcell collection, now in the British Library at Add MSS 62667-72, contains manuscripts of Bonduca,
The Indian Queen, King Arthur and The Fairy Queen, among many other works.
16 Catch Club archive, British Library H.2788.ss., f. 43r.
17 Catch Club archive, British Library H.2788.ss., f. 43r.
18 ‘Sing all ye muses’ was probably omitted because, unusually for Catch Club repertoire, it required instrumental accompaniment.
19 As Parker’s general advertiser and morning intelligencer of 3 Jan 1783 put it, ‘The first of Dilettanti, Mr. Joah
Bates, as usual, is to superintend and direct at the Concerts of Ancient Music’.
20 Weber, The rise of musical classics in eighteenth-century England, p.237.
21 Long runs of programmes may be found at the British Library, Bodleian Library and Foundling Museum, for example.
22 British Library Kings MS 318. A few of the dates therein do not tally with those on the printed programmes, so this manuscript needs to be treated with caution.
23 Weber, The rise of musical classics in eighteenth-century England, pp.248-57.
24 Weber, The rise of musical classics in eighteenth-century England, p.154.
25 British Library Egerton MS 2159, f. 57.
26 Not all were directors for the same length of time: some died during the period in question, while others only became directors towards the end of the century.
27 The morning chronicle, 17 February 1787.
28 Fitzwilliam Museum MU.MS.120 and MU.MS.119 respectively.
29 The Royal College of Music Library holds manuscript material owned by the Academy of Ancient Music and
Concerts of Ancient Music, and Harry Johnstone has recently identified about 50 manuscripts from the Academy of
Ancient Music’s collection in Westminster Abbey Library. See H.D. Johnstone, ‘Westminster Abbey and the
Academy of Ancient Music: a library once lost and now partially recovered’, Music & Letters, xcv (2014), pp.329-
73.
30 British Library Add MS 31450.
31 British Library MS Mus. 146. A label on the cover of the bass part reads ‘King Arthur / H. Purcell / Base / Mr.
Sale / 1787’.
32 Bodleian Library Tenbury MS 338. Margaret Laurie has highlighted Travers’s attempt to provide a setting for the song ‘St George’, for which the music is missing in early sources, by using the opening of the following chorus. See
Purcell, King Arthur, p.xi. The same remodelling is found in the Academy parts.
33 Purcell, King Arthur, p.xi.
34 E.T. Harris, ‘King Arthur’s journey into the eighteenth century’, Purcell studies, ed. C. Price (Cambridge, 1995), pp.257-89, at pp.268-9.
35 E.T. Harris, Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Oxford, 1989), pp.124-47, at pp.130-9.
36 Harris, Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, p.139.
37 The morning chronicle, 17 February 1787.
38 Papers carrying the advertisement included The morning chronicle, 5 May 1788 and The morning post for the same date.
39 The morning post, 28 February 1798.
40 The true Briton, 21 April 1798.
41 The morning herald, 23 April 1800.
42 The morning chronicle, 11 May 1785.
43 See, for example, J. Westrup, Purcell, rev. N. Fortune (London, 1980), p.145.
44 Laurie, ‘Did Purcell set “The Tempest”?’. Laurie (at p.44) names William Barclay Squire and Dennis Arundell as earlier scholars who had had doubts, to a greater or lesser degree, about the attribution of The Tempest to Purcell.
45 Purcell, King Arthur, pp.168, 205.