Keyboard Works

by Henry Purcell

Overview

Renowned for the originality of his music and his gifts as a melodist, Henry Purcell (1659–1695) was the preeminent English composer of the seventeenth century and one of the greatest that nation has ever produced. His gifts are apparent not only in the vocal and orchestral works on which his fame rests, but in his delightful keyboard music, much of which is relatively simple and easy to perform. This volume is a near-complete collection of Purcell's keyboard compositions, including the eight suites, the core of his keyboard works. Also included are many miscellaneous one-movement pieces: airs, trumpet tunes (for harpsichord solo), grounds, preludes, dances, etc.
Piano students and pianists of intermediate skills will enjoy these pieces for their charm and accessibility. Gathered here in one convenient, inexpensive volume, they offer a treasury of time-honored music that musicians and music lovers will turn to again and again.
This volume has been edited with a preface by the noted music scholar William Barclay Squire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486171869
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Series:	Dover Classical Piano Music
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	79 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Read an Excerpt

Keyboard Works

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By Henry Purcell

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 1990 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-17186-9

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PREFACE

DURING the last fifty years several collections of Purcell's Harpsichord Music have appeared. Some of these contain compositions which are now known to have been ascribed to him wrongly, while from time to time various new pieces have come to light. It is believed that the following pages contain all the original compositions that at present can be attributed to him with any degree of certainty. Arrangements (though many are probably from his pen) have been excluded, with the exception of the "New Ground," from "Musick's Handmaid "–a transcription of the air, "Here the Deities approve," from the 1683 St. Cecilia Ode. This has been retained, as the harpsichord version appeared during Purcell's lifetime, though without the name of the composer.

Tempi and marks of expression have been added; but as they are not to be found in the originals, they may be varied according to the taste of the performer. It should be noted that in Purcell's time the tempo was supposed to be regulated by the time-signature. But, possibly following to careless editing, the earliest editions (such as that of the "Choice Collection of Lessons," in which Purcell's Suites appeared in 1699) do not with any consistency carry out the rules laid down. It appears, however, certain that the tempi of the various dance-movements of the Suites (e.g., the Corants) differed considerably in England from those in use in France. With regard to the Graces, so important a feature in Harpsichord Music, the original signs have been retained. Their meaning will be easily understood by studying the following rules, which were prefixed to the "Choice Collection of Lessons " (1699) and other similar collections

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Observe that you always shake from the note above, and beat from the note or half-note below, according to the key you play in [i.e., graces are diatonic and shakes generally begin with the upper accessory] ; "and for the plain note and shake" [i.e., appoggiatura and shake], "if it be a note without a point" [i.e., undotted], "you are to hold half the quantity of it plain, and that upon the note above tha which is marked and shake the other half, but if it be a note with a point to it" [i.e, a dotted note], "you are to hold all the note plain and shake only the point" [i.e., the appoggiatura takes about half the value of the main note ; if the main note is dotted, two-thirds].

In Dannreuther's "Musical Ornamentation" (to which the student may be referred who wishes to pursue further the interesting subject of obsolete graces) it is shown that the battery, in modern notation, would be written thus:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Keyboard Works by Henry Purcell. Copyright © 1990 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Copyright Page,
PREFACE,
PUBLISHER'S NOTE,
Suite in G Major,
Suite in G Minor,
Suite in G Major,
Suite in A Minor,
Suite in C Major,
Suite in D Major,
Suite in D Minor,
Suite in F Major,
Trumpet Tune, called the Cibell,
Trumpet Tune in C Major (from Dioclesian),
A Ground in Gamut,
Almand in C Major,
Saraband with Division,
Voluntary in C Major,
A Verse in F Major,
Trumpet Tune in D Major,
Air in D Minor,
Air in D Minor,
Ground in C Minor,
Prelude in A Minor,
Toccata in A Major,
Hornpipe in E Minor,
Air in G Major,
Corant in G Major,
Minuet in G Major,
Voluntary in G Major,
Song Tune,
March in C Major,
March in C Major,
New Minuet in D Minor,
Minuet in A Minor,
Minuet in A Minor,
A New Scotch Tune,
A New Ground in E Minor,
Lilliburlero. A New Irish Tune,
Rigadoon,
Sefauchi's Farewell,
Minuet in D Minor,
Almand [Gavotte] in D Major,
Borry [Saraband] in D Major,
Verse in the Phrygian Mode,
The Queen's Dolour. A Farewell,
Minuet in E Minor,
A Ground in D Minor,