Institutes of Musical Research and English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Departments of Music and Literature, The Open University
The Handel Institute
The Purcell Society
Royal Musical Association
This conference will be one of the concluding events in the year marking the anniversaries of Henry Purcell's birth (1658 or 1659) and Handel's death (1759).
Taken together, the careers of the two composers constitute one of the most remarkable periods in London's music-making. Although Handel's career in London commenced only fifteen years after Purcell's death, their styles in setting English texts were very different, partly because of their individual approaches to word-setting, and partly because of the different styles in which they worked. Yet for both of them English literary texts were fundamental to aspects of their activity. Both wrote for major productions (of plays or un-staged oratorios) in the London theatres, and contributed to some common genres - Cecilian and court odes, and liturgical church music on texts from the Book of Common Prayer. Handel set odes by John Dryden that had originally been written during Purcell's lifetime, and also texts by John Milton; texts by Congreve (though not the same ones) form a common thread in works by both composers. Nahum Tate was the librettist of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; Handel's anthems include settings of texts from the metrical versions of the Psalms by Tate and Brady. Both composers, however, were also reliant on other librettists of their own generations: D'Urfey for Purcell's stage works, for example, Miller, Jennens and Morell for Handel's oratorios.
