Beyond Classical

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD PURCELL: Full Anthems / Music on the Death of Queen Mary

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Music AND Flowers. The Perfect Gifts.

Spend $50 or more on NaxosDirect and we'll give you a $10 coupon for 1800Flowers.com family of stores. Offer ends Feb. 12th. Need suggestions? Click here

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Celebrating Black History

Grammy Winners on Sale

Masters of American Music

Valentine�s Day Special

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

PURCELL: Full Anthems / Music on the Death of Queen Mary

Home

Classical Music

Choral

PURCELL: Full Anthems / Music on the Death of Queen Mary

View large image

Total playing time: 01:12:21

$8.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this CD Link to this page

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) Full Anthems and Organ Music Music on the Death of Queen Mary We find it easy enough to accept that a Tchaikovsky or Mahler...

Read more about this recording

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)

Full Anthems and Organ Music
Music on the Death of Queen Mary

We find it easy enough to accept that a Tchaikovsky or Mahler symphony is to some extent autobiographical, but with earlier music we assume that the composer's inner voice is likely to have been forestalled by the functional rôle that music inhabited in earlier centuries. In Henry Purcell's day, the job of a composer in the busy courts and churches of the Baroque was to provide a well-crafted commodity designed to compliment a patron, entertain him, or adorn a ceremony or liturgy with an appropriate musical setting-the day-to-day grind of fulfilling regular and significant obligations was not often conducive to self-motivated composition. Perhaps the sign of greatness in a Baroque composer is that in spite of the strictures of patronage the music communicates integrity, value, and individualism above and beyond the call of duty.

Purcell is one of very few composers in the Baroque whose musical language, at its richest, tempts us to speculate on the man's sense of being. Perhaps we feel less inclined to do this with Bach, say, since we know more about his life. More was written about Bach in his lifetime and in subsequent years than has ever been written about Purcell. Bach worked within a fervent religious and intellectual milieu a generation later than Purcell, where such genres as the concerto, cantata, and sonata were well established, and tonality fully formulated. We revere Bach's works as much as anything for their sense of stylistic finality, for their essentially solid state and outward-bound character (however inwardly motivated) which is why it hardly occurs to us to search for an autobiographical vein in his music. But Purcell is different: we know precious little of his personality; no great biography followed his untimely death at the age of only thirty-six; and more crucially, he was raised at a time of major social, religious, and musical flux. As the son of a musician at court, a chorister at the Chapel Royal, and the holder of continuing royal appointments until his death, Purcell worked exclusively in Westminster for three different Kings over twenty-five years. He grew up in a country very much 'on the make' following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. By the time Purcell's compositional career started to bear fruit in around 1679, he had witnessed London's bubonic plague of 1665 which wiped out nearly one sixth of the capital's population, the Great Fire a year later which left parts of London "nothing more than an open field", and watched the capital swiftly turn into an international centre of commerce and a hot-house of political intrigue, accompanied by constant overspending by the King and the same old barbaric habits (heads of traitors were still displayed on the southern turret on London Bridge). Facts about Purcell's activities at court are fairly well documented, but it is to this insecure and paradoxical time in English history that we must owe a degree of Purcell's mercurial musical perspective on life, as well as to several personal sadnesses.

A country looking so far back and so far forward at the same time is reflected in Purcell's unique blend of poignancy and vigour - a blend which deliberately distorts traditional English contrapuntal devices with new-fangled harmony, and which superimposes just enough continental panache and drama (as well the common touch of old English folkiness) to create the most distinctive and expressive musical cocktail of its time. The anthems and organ pieces on this recording are a testament to a composer in full-flight. All of the anthems, including the Funeral Music, are 'full anthems' which denote the equal importance of all the voices as opposed to 'verse anthems' which employ solo voices alternating with full choir. Arguably it is the full anthems that reveal most clearly the simple and personal utterances for which Purcell is justly famed, though unsurprisingly Purcell demonstrates a broad range of stylistic awareness too. In Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, one of only two sacred Latin motets by the composer, Purcell expresses in a shimmering but unmistakeable palette an astonishing choral declamation and plea for mercy in the most current Italianate idiom; given that this work was too 'catholick' in style for the Chapel Royal, one wonders what personal event led to such an intense work? And can the deeply-felt Lord, how long wilt thou be angry? and Hear my prayer be simply a detached but professional response to the texts?

Queen Mary's death was a devastating blow which deeply affected the country. Mary had been a much-loved monarch and the public demanded a funeral which reflected its devotion. Purcell's mesmerizing choral music was prefaced by a procession which one can imagine was profoundly moving. No expense was spared. Sir Christopher Wren had ensured that the route to Westminster was lined with black railings. Three hundred sombre old women led the entourage dressed in black capes with boys carrying their trains. How perfectly the occasion leant itself to Purcell's evocative and bitter-sweet music. The text set ting is so atmospheric as to leave the listener motionless in the stark loneliness and vulnerability of the human condition. The resigned melodic sighs and other-worldly harmony must have been a draining experience on that cold March morning of 1695. So much of Purcell's music touches the melancholic state beyond mere 'affect'. Engrained in his soul is this elusiveness that keeps us yearning for the meaning (perhaps even autobiographical) behind this wonderful music. No-one could have foreseen that in November of that same year the same music would be performed at Purcell's own funeral, also in Westminster Abbey. Maybe an irony of this order is unsurprising for such a man and his enigmatic legacy.

Oxford Camerata
The Oxford Camerata was formed in order to meet the growing demand for choral groups specializing in music from the Renaissance era. It has since expanded its repertoire to include music from the medieval period to the present day using instrumentalists where necessary. The Camerata currently tours regularly within Europe and has made a variety of recordings for Naxos spanning the music of nine centuries.

Jeremy Summerly
Jeremy Summerly was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford from where he graduated with First Class Honours in Music in 1982. For the next seven years he worked for BBC Radio and it was during this time that he founded the Oxford Camerata and undertook postgraduate research at King's College, London. In 1989 he became a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music and in the following year he was appointed conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford. In 1991 he signed a long- term contract with Naxos to record a variety of music with Schola Cantorum and the Oxford Camerata.

Laurence Cummings
Laurence Cummings was organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford from where he graduated with First Class Honours in Music in 1989. He subsequently studied with Robert Woolley at the Royal College of Music where he won the prestigious inter-collegiate Raymond Russell Prize, and currently studies with Jill Severs. He is active as both solo harpsichordist and continuo player and has toured and broadcast extensively with The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra. In 1993 he embarked upon a series of recordings of harpsichord music for Naxos, beginning with the music of Louis and François Couperin.

Disc 1

Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z. 135

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Michael McCarthy, bass
Andrew Carwood, tenor
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z. 135 - 7:27

Remember not, Lord, our offences, Z. 50

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Remember not, Lord, our offences, Z. 50 - 3:39

I will sing unto the Lord, as long as I live, Z. 22

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

I will sing unto the Lord, as long as I live, Z. 22 - 3:29

Voluntary in D minor, Z. 718

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Voluntary in D minor, Z. 718 - 4:04

O God, thou art my God, Z. 35

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

O God, thou art my God, Z. 35 - 4:25

O God, the King of glory, Z. 34

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

O God, the King of glory, Z. 34 - 2:03

Voluntary in G major, Z. 720

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Voluntary in G major, Z. 720 - 2:55

Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?, Z. 25

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?, Z. 25 - 3:56

Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z. 15

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z. 15 - 2:51

Voluntary in C major, Z. 717

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Voluntary in C major, Z. 717 - 1:11

Blow up the trumpet in Sion, Z. 10

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

Blow up the trumpet in Sion, Z. 10 - 6:21

O God, thou hast cast us out, Z. 36

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

O God, thou hast cast us out, Z. 36 - 3:52

Music on the Death of Queen Mary

(more info)

Composed by: Henry Purcell
Conducted by: Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ
Recording date: 9-10 June 1994
Produced by: Lieber, Judy

March, Z. 860A - 1:25
Man that is born of a woman, Z. 27 - 2:36
In the midst of life we are in death, Z. 17A - 4:01
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, Z. 58B - 3:19
March, Z. 860A - 1:28
Incassum, Lesbia - The Queen's Epicedium, Z. 383 - 7:11
Canzona, Z. 860B - 2:05
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, Z. 58C - 2:30
March, Z. 860A - 1:33

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Purcell, Henry

Conductor(s):
Summerly, Jeremy

Artist(s):
Carwood, Andrew; Cummings, Laurence; McCarthy, Michael

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099412926
Item Number: 8553129
Release Date: Feb 13, 1995