Purcell

The author presents a compact biography that traces the subject's career and catalogues church music, odes, anthems, instrumental sonatas, and incidental theatre scores, situating them within contemporary performance practice. He evaluates the fragmentary survival of much stage music and argues that one short opera remains fully performable and contains an especially celebrated lament, while many masque and theatrical pieces lose coherence without staging. The book analyzes stylistic traits—a recurring freshness, mingled vigor and melancholy—and contrasts this voice with earlier modal traditions, concluding with discussion of late works, sources, and the editorial difficulties of producing a reliable collected edition.