Henry Purcell

English composer (1659–1695)

OverviewAI-generated

Henry Purcell was an English author, composer, organist, and musicologist born in Westminster in 1659. He studied under John Blow, Henry Cooke, Matthew Locke, and Pelham Humfrey and was educated at Westminster School. A figure of the Baroque music movement, he wrote in English and performed on the pipe organ and harpsichord. His notable works include the opera Dido and Aeneas, The Fairy-Queen, and the ode Hail, bright Cecilia. Other significant compositions are Producing the prophetess, or, The history of Dioclesian, Bonduca : Music Written to the Play of That Name, An introduction to the skill of musick, and King Arthur, or, the British Worthy.

Purcell had six children and was the sibling of Daniel Purcell. He died in Westminster on November 21, 1695, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. His works are described in sources such as the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition, the Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary, and The Nuttall Encyclopædia. He is recognized as a British composer within the classical and early music genres.

Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Europeana Sparql. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1659
Died: 1695
Works: 174

Top works

Bonduca : Music Written to the Play of That Name
Producing the prophetess, or, The history of Dioclesian
Daidō kap ʻĪnīat
An introduction to the skill of musick
King Arthur, or, the British Worthy

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Westminster, London, England

Henry Purcell (10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer and organist of the middle Baroque era. He was extremely prolific, having composed more than 100 songs, a tragic opera Dido and Aeneas, and wrote incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream called The Fairy Queen.

Known for

Purcell: Sacred Music — Composer

via TMDB

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 529,948
Total plays: 5,001,863

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Henry
Gender: male
Citizenship: Kingdom of England
Place of birth: Westminster
Place of death: Westminster
Sibling: Daniel Purcell
Occupation: musicologist
Educated at: Westminster School
Languages spoken: English language
Student of: Pelham Humfrey
Genre: ode
Movement: Baroque music
Instrument: harpsichord
Official website: www.henrypurcell.org.uk
Image: Henry Purcell by John Closterman.jpg
Number of children: 6

Show 16 more facts

place of burial: Westminster Abbey
writing language: English language
list of works: list of compositions by Henry Purcell
Commons category: Henry Purcell
date of death: 1695-11-21
topic's main category: Category:Henry Purcell
date of birth: 1659-09-10
Commons gallery: Henry Purcell
described by source: The Nuttall Encyclopædia
Commons Creator page: Henry Purcell
name in native language: Henry Purcell
start of work period: 1679-00-00
related category: Category:Compositions by Henry Purcell
P8168: sinfonia
P12674: Stephen Full
P12749: Courtepin

Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

10 objects attributed to Henry Purcell, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

The blessed virgin 's expostulation: part 1; part 2/(music: Purcell. words: N. Tate)

Nymphs and Shepherds

Sweeter than roses/(Purcell, arr. Bergmann & Tibbett)

Air from “Dido & Aeneas”/(Purcell)

Epithalamium/(Purcell, arr. Bergmann & Tibbett)

Untitled

~23 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Henry Purcell (/ˈpɜːrsəl/, rare: /pərˈsɛl/; c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer and organist of the middle Baroque era. He was extremely prolific, having composed more than 100 songs, a tragic opera Dido and Aeneas, and wrote incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream called The Fairy Queen.

Purcell's musical style was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Purcell is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Henry Purcell” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Henry Purcell