Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell, (born c. 1659 — died November 21, 1695, London), An English composer of the middle Baroque period, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream called The Fairy Queen.

Dido & Aeneas

A Dance To Entertain Aeneas … But Ere We This Perform … Cupid Only Throws The Dart … Dance Of The Furies … Behold Upon My Bending Spear … Destruction’s Our Delight … Fear No Danger … Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire … Grief Increases By Concealing … Harm’s Our Delight … Haste, Haste To Town … Ho Ho Ho … If Not For Mine … In A Deep Vaulted Cell … Oft She Visits This Lone Mountain … Our Next Motion … Overture Belinda … Overture Dido Aria … Prelude For The Witches … Pursue Thy Conquest (Love) …  Queen Of The Carthage … Ritornelle … Ruin’d Ere The Set Of The Sun … Sailor’s Chorus … Sailor’s Dance … See The Flags And The Streamers Curling … See Your Royal Guest Appears … Stay Prince And Hear … Thanks To These Lonesome Vales … To The Hills And Vales …  Thy Hand Belinda … Triumphing Dance … Whence Could So Much Virtue Spring … When I Am Laid … When Monarchs Unite … Witches Dance … With Drooping Wings … Your Counsel All Is Urged In Vain …

Purcell, the most important English composer of his time, composed music covering a wide field: the church, the stage, the court, and private entertainment. In all these branches of composition he showed an obvious admiration for the past combined with a willingness to learn from the present, particularly from his contemporaries in Italy. With alertness of mind went an individual inventiveness that marked him as the most original English composer of his time as well as one of the most original in Europe.