| GREEN MAN PRESS - EARLY MUSIC EDITIONS | ||
| George Jeffreys (c1610-1685) | LINKS: |
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| Jef 6 | Three devotional Songs for solo bass and continuo Praise the Lord,
O my Soule
- English anthem based on Psalm 104
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All three pieces come from the autograph score book in the British Library, which contains most of Jeffreys' surviving works. They show Jeffreys' familiarity with the Italian stile nuovo, and display the adventurousness of his writing compared to many of his contemporaries. |
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| Jeffreys & Purcell | ||
| Jef 7 | Duets for basses
for two basses and continuo |
LINKS: |
| The text of With notes
that are both loud and sweet may be by Jeffreys himself, and is full
of vivid imagery. The style is of the piece is declamatory, but has many
passages of effective word setting. Both voices suggest the angels descending
by swooping down to bottom E, and there is a telling chromatic phrase on
the word “Cry”. The piece displays Jeffreys’ interest
in the Italian style, and is characterised by the irregular phrase lengths
that are typical of him. It is clearly not intended for church use, and
was probably “for private chapels or other private meetings”
as were Child’s 1639 Italianate psalm settings.
Purcell’s anthem Awake ye
Dead was published by Henry Playford in the second volume of Harmonia
Sacra, 1693. This was to be a collection of ‘DIVINE HYMNS/AND/ DIALOGUES:/
WITH/A THOROW-BASS for the Theorbo-Lute,/ Bass-Viol, Harpsichord, or Organ./
Composed by the Best MASTERS of the Last and Present Age.’ His second
edition of 1703 claimed “four Excellent Anthems of the late Mr H.
Purcell’s never before Printed”. The virtuosic nature of this
piece is a reminder that some notable bass voices were available to Purcell
– possibly John Gostling and John Bowman, who both served in the
king’s Private Music . This piece contains much conspicuous word
painting, as for example the florid descending passages for “the
clatt’ring Orbs come down”. The words are by Nahum Tate, who
was poet laureate from 1692, and who provided the libretto for Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas. |
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| Jeffreys | ||
| Jef 8 | Three dialogues for soprano, bass and continuo
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| These delightful pieces
are written in a style which is both declamatory, showing the influence
of the Italian stile nuovo, and at the same time attractively melodic. The
first two dialogues are clearly intended as straightforward entertainment;
their theme the conventional one of the reluctant lover. In Lovely Sheaphard,
the Queen of the Night makes a proposition to Endimion which he cannot refuse.
In the second, Why sigh you swayne?, the shepherd seems ripe for
the picking, and needs only a little persuading to fall for the nymph.
The third dialogue, Heu me miseram,
is quite different in content and intention, and is startling in its dramatic
intensity. It would have been intended as a non-liturgical devotional
work, and depicts the encounter of Mary Magdalene with the risen Christ
in the garden on Easter morning. It has been described as “one of
the finest scenas by a 17th century composer, and certainly comparable
with the best compositions in this genre by Schütz and Purcell”. |
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