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Untitled Article
original instrumental score ; under which latter , Mr . Novello has added the signatures of the harmony . The vocal score is intelligible and bold , and the accompaniment for the organ is at once effective , and most conveniently arranged . The work is , indeed , from first to last , most admirably executed , both as to the arrangement and printing , affording facilities and completeness in the
performance , that it would be difficult to imagine could be exceeded ; advantages with which this author ' s works have never before been presented to the musical world , or they would have been more known , better understood , and , as a consequence , more generally admired .
Our object in noticing this work is not , however , to attempt any criticism on Purcell ' s music , whether sacred or secular . A noble and a useful task would it be to analyze the compositions of that extraordinary man , and resolve into its elements his wonderful combination of the profoundest science with the most varied and fervent expressions of feeling . That task is left to those who are better able to grapple with it than the writer
of this article . But there are thoughts on other matters suggested by this publication , which belong to the critical department in which he is accustomed to labour , and which he hopes will not be unworthily pressed on the reader ' s attention , seeing that they relate to the promotion of human improvement and enjoyment . Mr . Novello appears before us not only as the editor but as the biographer of Purcell : he has brought into the latter character
the good taste and feeling , the judgment , industry , and skill , which distinguish him in the former ; and his pen , like other instruments to which his fingers are more accustomed , not only ' discourses eloquent music , ' but is exciting and suggestive , striking the keynote of many strains of mental melody , and awakening by the power of association , thoughts and feelings which may often flow Far remote from their original source . Purcell was a fortunate man . There was the rare felicity of a correspondence between his nature and his early circumstances .
They harmonized like one of his own melodies with its rich and varied accompaniment . He came of a musical family . He inherited those peculiarities of organization which alone confer the highest degree of susceptibility to the effect of musical sounds . His frame was tuned , and ready to vibrate sweetly and powerfully as soon as the winds of heaven should breathe upon it . And the first winds that blew were propitious ones . His father and uncle were both attached , as musicians , to the chapel royal of Charles II . At a very early age he became one of the children of the chapel . He lisped in music . He was the companion and pupil of Blow , that * fine old church writer , ' who outlived and succeeded him , and caused it to be engraven on his tomb , that he was * master to the famous Mr . Henry Purcell . ' Pelham Humphrey and Michael Wise were also his associates ; and they all gained renown
Untitled Article
290 Henry Purcell .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 290, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/2/
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