cover image Purcell: A Biography

Purcell: A Biography

Jonathan Keates. Northeastern University Press, $40 (316pp) ISBN 978-1-55553-287-1

Ever since the tercentenary of Purcell's birth, in 1959, there has been growing attention by scholars, biographers and musicians to the remarkable body of work of the ""English Orpheus,"" and this latest biography--the second to appear this year--is a worthy addition to Purcellian scholarship. Keates, a fiction writer (like Maureen Duffy before him) as well as a musical biographer, suffers from the same meagerness of primary sources as other would-be Purcell biographers (""A true biography,"" he says, ""is impossible to fashion""); there are very few documents, other than the manuscripts; sketchy records; and almost no anecdotal material. Still, he has made excellent use of his own enthusiasm for Purcell's music to kindle interest even in more out-of-the-way pieces; his detailed treatment of much of the music is the best so far in a popular study. He is intelligent also on the complex religio-political history of the time, and casts a knowing eye on the French and Italian influences on Baroque music, influences that Purcell thoroughly absorbed into a distinctive English style that has inspired native composers ever since. Illustrations, and a helpful index to works discussed in the text. (Oct.)