Henry Purcell is my favorite of the great British composers. His vocal works captured the beauty of God. The dissonance in works such as "In the Midst of Life, We are Upon Death" from the music for Queen Mary and "Remember not, our Offenses" is absolutely gorgeuse.
I am happy for you, and a little envious, too. Purcell and Elgar are my favourite British composers as they are for many, many others! Cheers, from Australia
"The first great British composer? Well, I think not. England had her greatest composers in the 16th and 17th century. Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd and so many more. Technically there wasn't a United Kingdom then, but there were the British Isles and the music at the Scottish court was not much different from that of the English court. I should see Henry Purcell rather as the last great composer in a long musical development starting with Dunstable or earlier. Only in the late 19th century Britain found her own distinct musical voice again.
One could argue that Purcell is the first great "british" composer, as opposed to his predecessors, who were great english composers. Purcell lived when a middling kingdom on some island started on its path to become a world-spanning empire.
Oh come come! What a sententious statement, especially when you put Handel into the mix, which you obviously didn’t. It’s a good idea to put “in my opinion” next to your opinions, because it’s quite rude to think one can speak for the entire world!
@@petermcdonald4323 To be English is to be British, so both are, but calling them British before English when there was no British state/nationality is what's wrong.
I love Purcell's music and am interested in the Restoration Age. We do not have much info about great people like Purcell, Dryden, Wren in Japanese yet.
Interesting documentary, but what about the astonishing musical explosion during the English Renaissance with Byrd, Bull, Dowland, Tallis, just to name a few?
At 6: 39 someone is taking liberties with the word 'wistfulness' ! I wouldn't translate that as 'melancolia'. Wistful is more delicate than that, closer to 'pensive' or 'lost in thought'. @ lingofiles
An entertaining and informative documentary. Charles Hazlewood is always such a great presenter. I enjoyed watching this very much. Thank you to the uploader for uploading.
Underrated by whom, pray?? How could he be “underrated” when he was highly celebrated in his short life, when his music is part of major celebrations and times of mourning in England, and has been for centuries, and whose music is sung regularly in Anglican and Episcopal churches?? You can’t be buried next to the organ in Westminster Abbey, where church officials decreed that no expense should be spared for his burial, ffs! And “Dido’s Lament” is used repeatedly in one of the most memed films to date, “Downfall”!! I swear, people must feel some kind of cachet or reflected good taste when they decree a very popular and well regarded classical composer or musician-current or historical-as “underrated.”: especially since they’re almost always wrong!
I was always taught that Purcell's name was pronounced with the stress on the first syllable so it's grating to constantly hear it pronounced the other way. Interesting documentary though.
He doesn't, though. He admits he's guessing on the pronunciation. Like Jesse, I lean to stress on the first syllable because of a contemporary reference to "Mr. Pursal".
Sorry , but I have to strongly disagree here!!!!! Purcell , yest great but NOT the first great British composer. Were do you put the majestic John Dunstable . for example?
I think this is a good documentary on the depths of his career and his musical accomplishments. But still there us not much information on things such as his birth and early life.This is stuff that can mainly be found in books and Internet articles as well. However this is a good recording other than that and the constant skipping. Still needed to be a bit more in depth in my personal opinion.
I have to wonder why the presenter chose to ignore the music of the English Reformation in his opinion-stated as fact-that Purcell was the first great English composer-bc he wasn’t. William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, and others. Weird! And I really don’t understand the choice of soloists for this….the bass was so foofy, and the mezzo sang “Dido’s Lament” so pretty-pretty, but with zero emotion.
Excellent documentary, thank you ! Can anybody tell more about the possible influence of Dowland on Purcell's music. Both have been quite productive on Shakespeare's work, and all three have been inspired by the "melancholy", a very "fashionable" state of mind and soul in the England of 16e and 17e century...
Dreadful documentary, why do we need to see the p renter all the time, and what does the tube have to with Purcell, or am I missing something. A voice over works, this doesn't
Good sir, thank you for that sage advice. I buy a lot of music, drama, and art DVDs. I strongly support artists' intellectual property rights. Small problem here. This 2009 BBC program is not available via DVD in the USA (at least Google thinks not) -- and even when so, BBC DVDs generally use Region 2 encoding, which is not playable on USA Region 1 players. Therefore, Mr Einstein, kindly take your snarky advice and shove it firmly where the sun shineth not.
I would advise Mr. Rabbit that there are Region free DVD players available and someone who claims to buy lots of music, drama and art DVDs could probably afford to buy one. But , I won't do it fearing that it would only incite him to hurl an unkind remark in my direction as he did you. So , we will just keep it our little secret. OK?
Amusingly, the presenter talks about some of Purcell's light songs being a "bit risqué" or words to that effect. In truth, many of his canons are positively pornographic, so they wouldn't have been able to play those on public TV ;-) I know, I've performed several and they are very funny and very technically ingenious.
@@Ekvitarius The very tone of the dialogue, speaking as if he/she was imparting knowledge that was unknown to the listener. (which it might well be, but there is no need to patronize) Right from the beginning calling the general subject 'British' music, rather than English music that it is, It is difficult to explain because it is more an intuitive feeling that probably only an English person would be aware of, there is a nuance to all languages that only (generally speaking) a native speaker would pick up on.. That is not to say that it does not contain useful information etc etc, I am a lover of Purcell's music and was excited to see this programme on RU-vid but its tone annoyed me and I turned it off..
@@davidjames9626 Another great film about Purcell entitled "England My England" was definitely not stuffy or patronizing. Michael Ball starring. Released in 1995 ... the tricentenary of Purcell's death. You will love it, I sure did.
