Fairest Isle

Last updated

"Fairest Isle" is one of the best-regarded songs by the 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell, a setting of words by John Dryden. It first appeared as a soprano solo in their semi-opera King Arthur (1691), where it is sung by the goddess Venus in praise of the island of Britain as the home of Love. It has since frequently been performed separately as a concert piece by both sopranos and countertenors.

Contents

Text

Fairest Isle, all Isles Excelling, Seat of Pleasure and of Love;
Venus, here, will choose her Dwelling, and forsake her Cyprian grove.

Cupid from his Fav'rite Nation, Care and Envy will Remove;
Jealousie, that poysons Passion, and Despair that dies for Love.

Gentle Murmurs, sweet Complaining, Sighs that blow the Fire of Love;
Soft Repulses, kind Disdaining, shall be all the Pains you prove.

Every Swain shall pay his Duty, grateful every Nymph shall prove;
And as these Excel in Beauty, those shall be Renown’d for Love.

Music and lyric

"Fairest Isle" forms part of a sequence of songs, dramatically somewhat unconnected, which form the masque in act 5 of King Arthur. [1] It is sung by Venus, a soprano part, and takes the form of a minuet [2] [3] in which, according to Grove , the "noble melody is supported by richly dissonant harmony". [4] Being in triple time it might have seemed ill-assorted with Dryden's lyrics, which are in duple metre, but for Purcell's art in reconciling the different metres. At the time this was a quite common practice for English composers, necessitated by the dominance of duple metre in 17th-century English poetry. [5] An instrumental arrangement of "Fairest Isle" is preserved in Purcell's Ayres for the Theatre and presumably was intended to be played at some point in King Arthur, but precisely where is not known. [6]

Reception

In the general neglect which befell most of Purcell's secular music in the century after his death in 1695, "Fairest Isle" was one of a small number of patriotic songs by him – others include "Genius of England", "Britons, Strike Home!" and "Let the Soldiers Rejoice" – which maintained a regular presence on the stage and in the concert hall. [7] Charles Wesley's hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" was first sung to Purcell's music for "Fairest Isle", and in places echoes its lyrics. [8] In 1770, when David Garrick staged a version of King Arthur deprived of many of Purcell's songs, particularly those in the act 5 masque, "Fairest Isle" survived the cuts. [9] Charles Burney, in the third volume of his General History of Music (1789), wrote that "This is one of the few airs that time has not the power to injure. It is of all ages and countries." [10] Its popularity nevertheless waned from the mid-19th century until the early 20th. [11] Among those who revived its reputation were Jack Westrup, who wrote of it as a "spacious tune" that expressed an unostentatious "patriotism of the spirit" rather than the patriotism of banners and bugles, [12] and Robert T. White, who considered it one of the greatest songs in the whole of the old English repertoire. [13] It is now considered by many to be Purcell's greatest song, [14] and has been lauded as a "sublime soprano solo" [2] of "the most tender poise and elegant gravity". [3] Its lyric has been called one of the most famous in the English language. [15] In 1995, the 300th anniversary of Purcell's death, the BBC launched a year-long festival of British music under the title "Fairest Isle". It was ushered in by a radio play, Steven Wyatt's Fairest Isle, a documentary drama about the writing and first production of King Arthur in which the eponymous song figured repeatedly. [16] Singers who have recorded "Fairest Isle" include Nancy Argenta, Catherine Bott, James Bowman, April Cantelo, Alfred Deller, Paul Esswood, Heather Harper, Yvonne Kenny, Felicity Lott, Andreas Scholl, and Maggie Teyte. [17]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Humphreys, Mark (2001). "Purcell". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 20: Pohlman to Recital. London: Macmillan. p. 614. ISBN   0333608003 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 Shay 2002, p. 21.
  3. 1 2 Savage 1995, p. 376.
  4. ↑ Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Vol. Two: E–Lom. London: Macmillan. p. 993. ISBN   9780333485521 . Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  5. ↑ Pinnock, Andrew; Wood, Bruce (2017). "Alexander's Feast, or The Power of Perseverance: Dryden's Plan for English Opera and Its Near-Fulfilment in a Handel Ode". In Timms, Colin; Wood, Bruce (eds.). Music in the London Theatre from Purcell to Handel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN   9781107154643 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  6. ↑ Price 1984, pp. 315–316.
  7. ↑ Herissone, Rebecca (2012). "Performance History and Reception". In Herissone, Rebecca (ed.). The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 321–322. ISBN   9780754666455 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Temperley, Nicholas (1983). The Music of the English Parish Church. Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 210. ISBN   9780521220453 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  9. ↑ Harris, Ellen T. (1995). "King Arthur's Journey into the Eighteenth Century". In Price, Curtis (ed.). Purcell Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 267. ISBN   9780521441742 . Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  10. ↑ Burney, Charles (1789). A General History of Music, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Volume the Third. London: Payne, Robson, Clark, Robinson and Robinson. p. 492. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Simpson 2008, p. 5.
  12. ↑ Westrup, J. A. (1965). Purcell (5th ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. p. 136. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  13. ↑ White, Robert T. (2013) [1924]. Music & Its Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 88. ISBN   9781107632035 . Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  14. ↑ Price 1984, p. 315.
  15. ↑ Vaché, Jean (October 1986). "The Numbers of Poetry and Vocal Music' in King Arthur: The Internal Evidence". Cahiers Élisabéthains. 30: 63. doi:10.1177/018476788603000109 . Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  16. ↑ Simpson 2008, p. 77.
  17. ↑ "King Arthur, or The British Worthy Z.628 ; Fairest isle". Muziekweb. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Purcell</span> English composer (1659–1695)

Henry Purcell was an English composer of Baroque music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera</span> Art form combining sung text and musical score in a theatrical setting

Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Vaughan Williams</span> English composer (1872–1958)

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Boyce (composer)</span> English composer and organist(1711–1779)

William Boyce was an English composer and organist. Like Beethoven later on, he became deaf but continued to compose. He knew Handel, Arne, Gluck, Bach, Abel, and a very young Mozart, all of whom respected his work.

Peter Anthony Motteux was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of The Gentleman's Journal, "the first English magazine," from 1692 to 1694.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love Divine, All Loves Excelling</span> Christian hymn written by Charles Wesley

"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley on Christian perfection. Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley's finest. Judging by its distribution, it is also among his most successful.

The history of opera in the English language commences in the 17th century.

<i>Dido and Aeneas</i> Opera by Purcell

Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.

In Classical music theory, a Neapolitan chord is a major chord built on the lowered (flatted) second (supertonic) scale degree. In Schenkerian analysis, it is known as a Phrygian II, since in minor scales the chord is built on the notes of the corresponding Phrygian mode.

<i>Albion and Albanius</i> 1685 opera written by John Dryden

Albion and Albanius is an opera, closely resembling a French tragédie en musique, by Louis Grabu with an English libretto by John Dryden.

<i>King Arthur</i> (opera) 1691 semi-opera by Dryden and Purcell

King Arthur, or The British Worthy, is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691.

<i>Venus and Adonis</i> (opera) Opera by John Blow written c1682

Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed no later than 1684 and no earlier than 1681. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor Castle. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest known English opera.

<i>The Fairy-Queen</i> Semi-opera by Henry Purcell

The Fairy-Queen is a semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a "Restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age of 35. Following his death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century.

The terms "semi-opera", "dramatic[k] opera" and "English opera" were all applied to Restoration entertainments that combined spoken plays with masque-like episodes employing singing and dancing characters. They usually included machines in the manner of the restoration spectacular. The first examples were the Shakespeare adaptations produced by Thomas Betterton with music by Matthew Locke. After Locke's death, a second flowering produced the semi-operas of Henry Purcell, notably King Arthur and The Fairy-Queen. Semi-opera received a deathblow when the Lord Chamberlain separately licensed plays without music and the new Italian opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music for a While</span> Song by Henry Purcell

"Music for a While" is a da capo aria for voice, harpsichord and bass viol by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell.

Sir Jack Westrup, FBA was an English musicologist, writer, teacher and occasional conductor and composer.

<i>Dido, Queen of Carthage</i> (opera)

Dido, Queen of Carthage was an opera in three acts by Stephen Storace. Its English libretto by Prince Hoare was adapted from Metastasio's 1724 libretto, Didone abbandonata, which had been set by many composers. Storace's opera premiered on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre in London combined with a performance of his masque, Neptune's Prophecy. The story is based on that of Dido and Aeneas in the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera was not a success and was never revived after its original run of performances. The score has been lost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baroque music of the British Isles</span>

Baroque music of the British Isles bridged the gap between the early music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods and the development of fully fledged and formalised orchestral classical music in the second half of the eighteenth century. It was characterised by more elaborate musical ornamentation, changes in musical notation, new instrumental playing techniques and the rise of new genres such as opera. Although the term Baroque is conventionally used for European music from about 1600, its full effects were not felt in Britain until after 1660, delayed by native trends and developments in music, religious and cultural differences from many European countries and the disruption to court music caused by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Interregnum. Under the restored Stuart monarchy the court became once again a centre of musical patronage, but royal interest in music tended to be less significant as the seventeenth century progressed, to be revived again under the House of Hanover. The Baroque era in British music can be seen as one of an interaction of national and international trends, sometimes absorbing continental fashions and practices and sometimes attempting, as in the creation of ballad opera, to produce an indigenous tradition. However, arguably the most significant British composer of the era, George Frideric Handel, was a naturalised German, who helped integrate British and continental music and define the future of music in the United Kingdom.

April Rosemary Cantelo is an English soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Arundell</span> English actor

Dennis Drew Arundell OBE was a British actor, librettist, opera scholar, translator, producer, director, conductor and composer of incidental music.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.