PURCELL: MUSIC FOR THE LONDON THEATER - Denis Stevens, Accademia Monteverdiana

The resurgence of the London theatre in the late seventeenth century brought with it not only a new interest in plays, players, scenic effects, stage designs, and the actual building and equipping of buildings suitable for theatrical representations; it provided an opportunity for incidental music, mostly instrumental but occasionally vocal, and this music was often written by composers of the first rank and performed by competent (if small) orchestras of strings and continuo, or by well-known singers of the day. Such music no longer forms part of the modern theatre, and even if it returned to fulfill its ancient function as overture and entr'acte it is doubtful whether eminent and seriously inclined composers would bother themselves with it. The writing of incidental music seems not to have been regarded by Purcell as embarrassing or beneath his dignity as Organist of Westminster Abbey. He was in the very midst of a tradition that not only permitted but actually encouraged well-known church musicians to provide lighter music for the theatre and opera, and this was an accepted practice in the great continental cities as well as in London. Most of Purcell's theatre music was written between 1690 and 1695 (the year of his death), and within that relatively brief period he supplied music for more than forty plays. Much of the instrumental music was published in 1697, when the composer's widow compiled A Collection of Ayres, Compos'd for the Theatre, and upon Other Occasions. Some items however are preserved only in manuscript sources. This body of music, viewed as a whole, shows that Purcell gave to the theatre some of his happiest melodic inspirations, distributed among solemn overtures, cheerful or pathetic airs, and delightful dances of every imaginable kind.