Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell

Biography

Henry Purcell (1659, London - 21 November 1695, Westminster, England) was an English composer, one of England's greatest and most original composers. When he was 18 years old, he was appointed to the Chapel Royal as a composer, and five years later he became organist of the chapel. His official duties led him to the composition of a large amount of church music. He also wrote much theater music, short opera masterpieces for school performances, popular ditties, and a large quantity of instrumental music for harpsichord and string instruments. A prominent feature of Purcell's music is a vigorous and steadily moving bass line, an idiom heard throughout the remainder of the Baroque period

Works for Winds

• Air and March (arr. Gordon) (1955)
• Battle Symphony (arr. Schaefer) (1976)
• Courtly Festival (arr. Gordon) (1961)
• Dido and Aeneas
• Dido's Lament (arr. Jos van de Braak)
• Fanfare and Rondo (arr. Gardner) (1957)
• Funeral Music for Queen Mary (after Purcell) (arr. Stucky) (1992)
• Music for Queen Mary (arr. Garofalo) (1695/1999)
• Music for Queen Mary II (ed. King) (1695/1956)
• Ode on St. Cecelia's Day 1692
• Passing By
• A Purcell Suite (arr. Boyd)
• Rondeau from "Abdelazar" (arr. Farnon) (1695/1988)
• Suite in E-flat Major (arr. Martin) (2010)
• Symphony from "The Fairy Queen," Act IV (arr. Smith) (1692/1957)
• Trumpet Tune
• Trumpet Tune and Air
• Trumpet Tune and Ayre (arr. Barnes) (1988)
• Voluntary on Old Hundreth (arr. Curnow) (/2000)

Resources

• Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Henry Purcell." Accessed 8 January 2015.
• Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 489.