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"Music: Breath of the statues. Perhaps: Silence of images. Your language where languages end" - Rainer Maria Rilke

Henry Purcell

Westminster Abbey is not just the place where British monarchs were crowned, it's also the place where many English great men were burried. Among those was also Henry Purcell. This final resting place had a double meaning for him: firstly, with his status as a composer he deserved a spot in the abbey, but secondly this was also the location where he worked during the reign of Charles II and William & Mary.  Most people will recognise the last aria of Purcell's beloved opera Dido and Aeneas: "Remember me, but ah! forget my fate." More abstract, but less trenchant are his brilliant Fantasias (for viola da gamba) which Purcell composed in the early 1680s. These are small, at times daringly expirimental works, which he carefully dated. Yet, Purcell mostly developed himself as a composer of vocal music, with numerous odes, 'welcome songs', motets (anthems), songs for domestic use (both sacred and secular, both monophonic and polyphonic) and music for theatre. 

Featured on

Various composers
Gentleman for a Day
Barbara Heindlmeier | Ensemble La Ninfea
Henry Purcell
An Englishman Abroad Nicola Matteis the Younger and the English style in 18th Century Europe
La Serenissima
Various composers
Lovesick
Randall Scotting
Magical Memories
Tine Thing Helseth / Kåre Nordstoga
Henry Purcell
Purcell - The Fairy Queen, 1692
Gabrieli Consort
Various composers
Dirty Minds
Olivia Vermeulen / Jan Philip Schulze
Various composers
In Nomine II
Fretwork
Henry Purcell
King Arthur
Gabrieli Consort
Various composers
From the Ground Up: The Chaconne
O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra
Michael Nyman, Henry Purcell
If
Fretwork
Henry Purcell
Symphony While The Swans Come Forward
Mike Fentross / Johannette Zomer / La Sfera Armoniosa
John Eccles, Gottfried Finger, Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas
Fabio Bonizzoni / La Risonanza
Various composers
To the Music
Charles Dekeyser
Henry Purcell
Dido & Aeneas
Christopher Monks / Armonico Consort
Henry Purcell
Les Inventions
VOCES8
New Eyes On Baroque
Jeanette Köhn
Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells
Majesty of thy Glory
Morris, Le Grice, Temple Church Cho
Various composers
Music For The Coronation of King James II, 1685
James Bowman / Andrew Tortise / Maciek O'Shea
Homage to queen mary
Academy of the begynhof, Amsterdam
Henry Purcell, Gideon Klein, Ludwig van Beethoven
Henry Purcell - Gideon Klein - Ludwig van Beethoven, Works for string trio
Goldberg-Trio-Bonn
Henry Purcell
The Three & Four Part Fantazias
The Royal Consort
Restauration Harpsichord Music
Richard Egarr
The World of Purcell
The Locke Consort
Dido and Aeneas
Academy of the Begynhof Amsterdam