Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of his Musical Style

Martin Adams

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521106915 ISBN 13: 9780521106917

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

This is the first book thoroughly to explore the musical style of Henry Purcell. In this comprehensive study, Martin Adams identifies music by other composers, both within England and from abroad, which influenced Purcell's compositional decisions. Using a mix of broad stylistic observation and detailed analysis, Adams distinguishes between late seventeenth-century English style in general and Purcell's style in particular and chronicles the changes in the composer's approach to the main genres in which he worked, especially the newly emerging ode and English opera. As a result, Adams reveals that although Purcell went through a marked stylistic development, encompassing an unusually wide range of surface changes, special elements of his style remained constant. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of music and theatre history and of British cultural and social history.

Review:

'For Purcell specialists and scholars, Martin Adam's Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of his Musical Style will be essential reading ... perhaps the most in-depth study of Purcell's music ever attempted.' The Sunday Times 'Ambitious ... painstaking and overwhelming detail'. Jeremy Noble, The Observer '... his discussion of the score and the circumstances of its performance is detailed, thought-provoking and convincing. This is a book that richly repays ... careful consecutive reading.' Forum for Modern Language Studies 'For Purcell specialists and scholars, Martin Adam's Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of his Musical Style will be essential reading ... perhaps the most in-depth study of Purcell's music ever attempted.' The Sunday Times

Book Description:

This is the first book thoroughly to explore the musical style of Henry Purcell. In this comprehensive study, Martin Adams identifies music by other composers, both within England and from abroad, which influenced Purcell's compositional decisions.