Purcell Studies

The tercentenary of Henry Purcell’s death fell in 1995, and this volume of specially commissioned essays was collected to celebrate Purcell’s music in this tercentenary year. The essays are representative of the best recent research and deal mainly with the autograph manuscripts, Purcell’s compositional technique, the relationship between Purcell and his teacher John Blow, a reassessment of Purcell court odes, performance practice and wordsetting, and eighteenth-century reception history, particularly regarding King Arthur. The volume is well illustrated with music examples and photographs of important manuscripts. This is also the first collection to analyse Purcell’s compositional techniques through detailed study of his manuscripts and the first to report on the discovery of two important autograph manuscripts. The book opens with an assessment of Purcell’s illusive personality.