PURCELL
BY JOHN F. RUNCIMAN
Bell's Miniature Series of Musicians
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1909
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BELL'S MINIATURE SERIES OF MUSICIANS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(From the portrait by Kneller, in the possession of
Henry Littleton, Esq.)
(From a portrait by Clostermann, in the National
Portrait Gallery.)
PURCELL SEATED AT THE HARPSICHORD
(From a portrait by Clostermann, in the National
Portrait Gallery.)
(From an engraving after a portrait by Clostermann
in the possession of the Royal Society of Musicians.)
OF PURCELL'S ANTHEM "BEHOLD, NOW PRAISE THE LORD"
(In the British Museum.)
CHAPTER I
We once had a glorious school of composers. It departed, with no sunsetsplendour on it, nor even the comfortable ripe tints of autumn. The sunof the young morning shone on its close; the dews of dawn gleam for everon the last music; the freshness and purity of the air of early morninglinger about it. It closed with Purcell, and it is no hyperbole to saythe note that distinguishes Purcell's music from all other music in theworld is the note of spring freshness. The dewy sweetness of the morningair is in it, and the fragrance of spring flowers. The brown sheets onwhich the notes are printed have lain amongst the dust for a couple ofcenturies; they are musty and mildewed. Set the sheets on a piano andplay: the music starts to life in full youthful vigour, as music fromthe soul of a young god should. It cannot and never will grow old; theeverlasting life is in it that makes the green buds shoot. To realisethe immortal youth of Purcell's music, let us make a comparison.Consider Mozart, divine Mozart. Mixed with the ineffable beauty of hismusic there is sadness, apart and different from the sadness that was ofthe man's own soul. It is the sadness that clings to forlorn things ofan order that is dead and past: it tinkles in the harpsichordfigurations and cadences; it makes one think of lavender scent and ofthe days when our great-grandmothers danced minuets. Purcell's music,too, is sad at times, but the human note reaches us blended with thegaiety of robust health and the clean young life that is renewed eachyear with the lengthening days.
The beauty of sanity, strength, and joyousness—this pervades all hewrote. It was modern when he wrote; it is modern to-day; it will bemo