Episode Details

Henry Purcell died at thirty-six and left behind music so emotionally direct it still sounds modern. He wrote the first great English opera, reinvented the Anglican anthem, and composed funeral music for a queen that was later played at his own burial.

This episode explores Purcell’s extraordinary career at the courts of three English monarchs and the mystery of his early death. He remains the greatest English-born composer before Elgar, and arguably after.

• He composed Dido and Aeneas, considered the first true English-language opera
• His funeral music for Queen Mary II was performed again at his own funeral months later
• He held the post of organist at Westminster Abbey from age twenty
• His ground bass techniques anticipated harmonic patterns that became staples of rock music