It thus came to pass that in Purcell's voluminous biography much that was obviously never intended for the public eye was, perhaps inadvertently, printed, together with a good deal of ungenerous comment. The facts disclosed which mainly attracted attention were: (1) that Manning, while yet ...
Henry Purcell, English composer of the middle Baroque period, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream called The Fairy Queen. Lear
A favourite device used widely by Purcell in hissecularmusic, though rarely in his anthems, was theground bass(a short melodic phrase repeated over and over again as a bass line, with varying music for the upper parts). This device can have an invigorating effect in lively pieces, while ...