Purcell: Suites And Transcriptions For Harpsichord

Charlston

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Cat No: 8553982

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099498227

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PURCELL

Description
Henry Purcell(1659-1695)Suites andTranscriptions for HarpsichordSource: A choice Collection of Lessons.....(1696)A British Library,MS. Mus 1, London Add. MSS 22099 and 41205 The FitzwilliamMuseum, Cambridge MS Mus 653Henry Purcell was borninto a musical family in London and began his education as a chorister in theChapel Royal under Captain Henry Cooke, Pelham Humphrey and later with JohnBlow. At fourteen he was retained as tuner of the King's keyboard instrumentsfor which he received no fee. At eighteen he was appointed composer-in-ordinaryfor the violins of the Chapel Royal and two years later became organist ofWestminster Abbey. His attentions turned to the London stage when William IIIcut back court patronage around 1690. Purcell successfully combined the careersof composer and performer to court and church whilst also pursuing his growinginterest in writing for the theatre and especially opera. His sudden death atthe comparatively early age of 36 caused wide-spread grief and robbed theLondon musical scene of its leading figure. His reputation continued toflourish, however, and his stage works were revived well into the eighteenthcentury. Sadly, much of his keyboard music has been lost and apart from a fewmanuscript copies our knowledge of it relies on printed editions. Mostimportant of these is the small collection entitled A choiceCollection of Lessons for the Harpsichord which contains the EightSuites. This was published posthumously by Purcell's wife, Frances, andHenry Playford in 1696, one of only a handful of printed books of keyboardmusic in late seventeenth-century Britain. It is dedicated to the Princess ofDenmark (later Queen Anne) and the preface thanks her for her patronage and hergenerous encouragement of my deceased husband's performances in music, togetherwith the great honour your highness has done that science, in your choice ofthat instrument for which the following compositions were made.Subsequent editionswere prefaced by instructions for beginners and included six arrangements ortranscriptions. The discovery of a holograph manuscript of some of Purcell'skeyboard pieces in 1994 has put many of our preconceptions about his keyboardmusic in a new light. This manuscript (British Library. Music Library, MS. Mus.1) contains two of the suites assembled in their familiar order but in the caseof the A minor Suite includes a hitherto unknown Jig. It alsoshows that Purcell himself was responsible for the keyboard versions of some ofhis theatre music which many have previously doubted. Since this manuscript wasunavailable when this recording was made, the new pieces could not be included.Purcell's eight Suitesexhibit a profound understanding of late seventeenth century keyboard idiomand such subtle pieces were obviously written with the discerning player inmind. The popular market, it seems, was more interested in the theatre and itsmusic and the later reprints of A choice Collection of Lessons includedsix transcription of theatre mu
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