The great Henry Purcell; one of the all too few composers who was honoured and respected by his own countrymen; so much so that he was buried with all ceremony, in Westminster Abbey after he died before achieving the age of 40. The quality of this entire production does full justice to his genius.
Really nice performance, incomparable music, no dancing or acting or movement in Baroque opera but in the spectacle itself and in commentaries like this, nothing more is needed!
To answer a question posted here frequently - after seeing this clip I got 'England My England' dvd on Amazon. I had to wait quite a while for it to arrive but it was worth it. I was expecting it to be something similar in make to Farinelli or Amadeus but I was in for a suprise. Highly recommended.
Scenes and machines indeed! This movie is a intelligently moving and humorous portrayal of life in those times, and a sensitive exploration into the soul of this exquisite artist. And this song knocks my socks off!
It is a joyous thing to want to be born in those days by listening, when music was language. The male voice is something else. Waow! Does this have a video? I would love to see it. Someone pls
Es verdad, es bellísimo en muchísimos sentidos. Gracias por enviármelo. Me acuerdo de haber visto esta película maravillosa hace unos años... qué maravilla recordarla. Va a ir a mi concierto del Martes?
Directed by Tony Palmer who filmed the documentary Rory Gallagher- Irish Tour 1974 … thought to have been lost for decades in a house fire at Tony’s house but a 2nd copy was discovered and the documentary is available for all to see about the guitar legend.
Poor William is depicted as a constipated oaf while Mary is all sunshine and enlightenment. The opposite is true. William, though a military man, brought High Baroque culture to England though his French and French trained architects, artists, and musicians. He turned shabby and decaying Hampton Court into a baroque showplace, made Kensington Palace a full time royal residence. He and Mary's Palace of Het Loo was fitting rival to Versailles and had Mary not died they would have done something even grander to Hampton.
Klaus Liebig Yes, you are right! Compare this piece to "Les Plaisirs Ont Choisi Pour Asile" by Lully, also a passacaille, from his opera Armide. The likeness is obvious. Lully lived before Purcell, so Purcell was probably familiar with Lully's works. And there was no copyright in the 1600's! Also, I much prefer the interpretation of Purcell's passacaille with Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet. It sounds much more alive to me.
@@johnforsbergbarrett923 I write now in reply to a comment you have made six years before to dispute the claim you have made in the same―that this song and Lully's are in actuality the same and, hence, that Purcell has plagiarized Lully; In my opinion, they do sound _similar_ , but, then again, two songs written in the same style (as you yourself have noted) would! To determine whether Purcell has actually plagiarized Lully or not, however, the actual similitude in structural composition of the two songs must be established, and they, as far as can be judged be me, are distinctly different. I implore you (not you really but anyone who is reading this rather) to listen to the two songs side by side. You will notice, again, that they do sound similar but that they, however, *don't* sound the same. Contrast this with the relation between Vivaldi's La Follia and Handel's Sarabande and you will find that detecting their sameness is easier―as they are based on the same folk theme, the famous _Follies of Portugal_ , which has been used by lots of other composers such as Bach and Corelli―even though they each have their own, and very distinct, moods, because their underlying structure is the same. I doubt you will respond to this post but, again, this was meant more for anyone who happens upon this thread.
What a WONDERFUL movie, absolutely delightful, profound and touching. Indeed: "Hony soyt qe mal y pense"... Love it. I have also been looking for this for ages! Any ideas of where can I buy it?
I would really appreciate if someone can tell me the reason why almost all of the "King Arthur" posted on RU-vid sound half step lower than written on the sheet of music. This Passacaille should be, for example, g minor according to the music, but this video sounds g-flat minor. This happens to other baroque music like Albinoni's concerto.
@gothips Ritornello SYLVAN & NYMPH For love ev'ry creature Is form'd by his nature. No joys are above The pleasures of love. CHORUS No joys are above. The pleasures of love. THREE NYMPHS In vain are our graces, In vain are your eyes. In vain are our graces If love you despise. When age furrows faces, 'Tis too late to be wise. THREE SYLVANS Then use the sweet blessing While now in possessing. No joys are above The pleasures of love.
So, there you are, Jósbel, Luis, my search for persiflage! Just before John Gay´s. There´s an excellent past on persiflage towards Brecht, desacralizing morals, thouhg opera, plus, anything there were up to. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Dieu et mon droit.
How happy the lover was originally sung by a countertenor, but a light tenor is good also, the range is only an octave G to g. For love ev'ry creature is a duo for Bass and....soprano! If a tenor sings the bass part, he will have much difficulty with the final low G. I never believed that practical music making could be learned from books! You might get on the wrong track. A voice is a very personal (and a little fragile) instrument.
the yawning fellow with the raggy long hair and long nose at 3:20 is that suppose to be King Billy ( William of Orange) ? quite often he is portrayed as an ugly cultureless oaf in English historic themed films
I don't think France was an "El Dorado" for any composer at this time. It is quite uncertain Purcell would had correspond to king Louis XIV musical choice at the Versailles court. Charpentier himself was no more than a modest composer which never wrote a note for Versailles court and never earned his life for a golden life.
Why create this pathetically ridiculous pantomime and shock the viewer to distraction while Purcell's gorgeous music played? What a bunch of weird looking people and settings... (And do my eyes deceive me or did I see a black girl in the audience? Yeah, sure!)
Point one: This was how operas were back then. Point two: Black people existed in the UK, albeit rarely, in the 1600s. As far back as the 1500s we have records of them. Henry VIII's trumpeter known as 'Black Henry' and was an African. In 1601, Queen Elizabeth I received numerous complaints about the large 'Blackamoor' communities in London (as black people were known in the UK) of the West African quarters near the port areas were loud and apparently annoyed other locals. There was very nearly a warrant drafted to have them mass deported. In the end it didn't happen. Black migrant freemen and their families lived in London and Liverpool primarily as these were port cities, close to where they could catch ships back and forth between Africa and the UK. British slave plantations were fully off-shore, and existed in the Caribbean in its entirety, so the small black community you would have seen back then in the UK were mostly working class and middle class merchants. There are numerous pictures and illustrations from the mid 1600s to the early 1800s period showing wa few black people in urbanized areas of London. Most of these older communities intermarried with English people, and their descendants over time became white. However, black people weren't that preculiar a sight in somewhere like London.
What a WONDERFUL movie, absolutely delightful, profound and touching. Indeed: "Hony soyt qe mal y pense"... Love it. I have also been looking for this for ages! Any ideas of where can I buy it?
