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Books about

Henry Purcell

1659 (Westminster) - 21 nov 1695 (London)


Books about Henry Purcell and his music

bookHenry Purcell Dido and Aeneas: An Opera (Norton Critical Score)
W. W. Norton & Company, 1986; ISBN 0393955281; 278 pages Price indication: $ 19.20
bookFranklin B Zimmerman Henry Purcell, 1659-1695: Melodic and intervallic indexes to his complete works
Smith-Edwards-Dunlap, 1975; ISBN 0844300683; 133 pages Price indication: $ 49.11
bookEllen T. Harris Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Clarendon Paperbacks)
Oxford University Press, 1990; ISBN 0193152525; 212 pages
Although it takes little more than an hour to perform, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas stands as the greatest operatic achievement of seventeenth-century England. This book demonstrates the opera's deep roots in the theatrical and musical traditions of its day, summarizing the cultural climate in which the opera was composed and analyzing Nahum Tate's libretto in light of seventeenth-century English music text conventions. Harris also evaluates the surviving sources, comparing them with the original libretto, and discusses the work's performance history and critical reception from the first performance through the revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Price indication: $ 35.00
bookCurtis Price and J. A. Westrup and Nigel Fortune Purcell (Master Musicians)
Oxford University Press, 1995; ISBN 0198165463; 352 pages Price indication: $ 18.95
bookJonathan Keates Purcell: A Biography
Northeastern University Press, 1996; ISBN 155553287X; 304 pages Price indication: $ 40.00
bookTimber Pr Amadeus Pr and Michael Burden The Purcell Companion
Amadeus Press, 1995; ISBN 0931340934; 514 pages Price indication: $ 39.95
bookRobert King Henry Purcell
Thames & Hudson, 1995; ISBN 0500016259; 240 pages
The death of Henry Purcell in November 1695, aged 36, was one of the great losses in musical history. He was one of England's most original and brilliant composers, and his equal would never come again. Of Purcell the man very little is known. His personality has to be reconstructed through the age in which in which he lived, the circumstances of his professional life, the men and women who knew him, and above all through his music. It is here that Robert King has a unique advantage. As one of Britain's leading baroque conductors and director of The King's Consort, he has a long experience in performing Purcell. His fascination for Purcell's music began when he was a 12-year old chorister: he is now regarded as one of the world's leading experts on this remarkable composer. Purcell's genius was recognised early. He became a "Child of the Chapel Royal" when he was only eight or nine years old, and a court musician when he was eighteen, and was thereafter at the centre of London's musical scene. His career spanned three reigns: Charles II, James II and William and Mary. Each had its own exciting demands, and Purcell produced an endless stream of odes, anthems, ceremonial music and songs. In addition to his official duties, he also wrote a vast amount of music for the theatre, including semi-operas like The Fairy Queen and King Arthur, as well as England's first true opera, Dido and Aeneas. Robert King weaves a narrative, bringing together politics (always in the forefront of Purcell's fortunes), religion, society and the theatre. Relating all this to the state of music at the time - instruments, techniques, foreign influences, formal innovations - he has produced a portrait of Henry Purcell to herald the tercentenary. Price indication: $ 15.95
bookPeter Holman Henry Purcell (Oxford Studies of Composers)
Oxford University Press, 1995; ISBN 019816341X; 272 pages
This book, the first general survey of Purcell's music in a generation, is published to coincide with the tercentenary of his death. It is the first book to explore in detail the historical context of Purcell's music, dealing fully with the institutions he worked for, the origin and development of the various genres to which he contributed, and the sources of his music. In the process, a new picture of Purcell's creative personality emerges: a composer obsessed with formal counterpoint, extraordinarily well-versed in English music of the previous century, yet eager to embrace up-to-date features of the Italian style in the 1680s. Price indication: $ 60.00
bookRobert Shay and Robert Thompson Purcell Manuscripts : The Principal Musical Sources
Cambridge University Press, 2000; ISBN 0521580943; 376 pages Price indication: $ 120.00
bookCurtis Price Purcell Studies
Cambridge University Press, 1995; ISBN 0521441749; 317 pages Price indication: $ 95.00
bookRobert Etheridge Moore Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theatre.
Greenwood Press Reprint, 1974; ISBN 0837171555; 223 pages Price indication: $ 75.00
bookDiscovery First Henry Purcell (First Discovery: Music S.)
Moonlight Publishing, 2001; ISBN 1851033092; 30 pages Price indication: $ 12.10
bookMargaret Campbell Henry Purcell: Glory of His Age
Oxford Univ Pr (T), 1995; ISBN 019282368X; 311 pages Price indication: $ 93.55
bookDennis Arundell Henry Purcell (Music Book Index)
Reprint Services Corp, 1927; ISBN 0781290791; 135 pages Price indication: $ 59.00
bookFranklin Zimmerman Henry Purcell, 1659-1695: His Life and Times
Univ of Pennsylvania Pr, 1983; ISBN 0812211367 Price indication: (used only): from $ 13.75
bookMARY JO SALTER HENRY PURCELL IN JAPAN (Vintage Contemporaries)
Knopf, 1985; ISBN 0394727622; 74 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 1.10
bookMichael Burden Purcell Remembered
Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, 1996; ISBN 1574670034; 214 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 0.78
bookArthur K. Holland Henry Purcell: The English Musical Tradition (Select Bibliographies Reprint Series)
Ayer Co Pub, 1932; ISBN 0836951832; 248 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 3.50
bookMichael Burden Performing the Music of Henry Purcell
Oxford University Press, 1996; ISBN 0198164424; 336 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 134.00
bookHolst I Henry Purcell, 1659-1695 Essays on His Music
Oxford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0193152061 Price indication: (used only): from $ 19.55

Sheet music, libretti, etc.

Dido and Aeneas in Full Score - Dover Publications

Keyboard Suites - G. Schirmer, Inc.

King Arthur: A Semi-Opera in Five Acts for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra With English Text : Vocal Score - Warner Bros Pubns

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day 1692 for Voices and Orchestra (Works of Henry Purcell, Vol 8) - Shawnee Pr

The Fairy Queen in Full Score - Dover Publications



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