MUSIC

ly Charles G.
Mortimer
A Purcell Club has been formed by the l'receit Record Company, Ltd., and is a society of music-lovers interested in the preservation of Henry Purcell's masterpieces in the best possible performance by means of gramophone records. The firat complete recorded performance of Purcell's Did() and Aeneas will be issued in November inalbum form, seven double-sided 12-inch records, with an explanatory booklet price 35s. The records cannot he sold separately.
There arc six principal characters in this opera and the part. of Dido is sung by Miss Nancy Evans. a new singer of exceptional vocal endowment. Among the other vocalists are Miss Mary Hamlin, Miss Mary Jarred, and Mr. Roy Henderson in the part of Aeneas. Mr. Kennedy Scott's A Cappella Singers form the choir, and Mr, Boyd Neel's String Orchestra with harpsichord (Mr. Bernard Ord) play the music. The conductor is Mr. Clarence Raybould and the opera is under the direction of Mr. Herbert Foss.
The Greatest Composers
Henry Purcell has been long neglected Ill England, set he and Byrd are the greatest composers this country has ever produced, with the additional name of Elgar. However, during the last fifty years there has been a persistent revival of inteiest in Purcell, and Professor E. J. Dent and others dedicated much of their musical life to propaganda in the cause of Purcell's music..
Purcell died at the early age of thirty-six. yet his works extend to some thirty-six quarto volumes. Much of this music is available to-day in the edition of the Purcell Society, but these monumental volumes are ill-suited to practical use. It is high time, therefore, that we interested ourselves as a nation in our musical past. For instance. during the great madrigal period, for the only time in her history, England was the centre of the musical life of Europe in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Lasting Work of Genius
licnry Purcell belongs to the period of the Restoration (1(58-1695). He was a pupil of Pelham Humphrey, who in turn had been sent by James 11 to France, where he had been a pupil of Lully. But Purcell's training was entirely English, though he was familiar also with the most important musical styles of the Continent. The date of his first opera, Dirlo and Aeneas. has been disputed, but it is now generally assigned to the years 1688 to
169It0Was not written for the public but for a girls' boarding-school in London, the young ladies of a certain Chelsea Academy. Here it was doubtless performed, and again as a masque in 1700, but after that it fell into desuetude for over two centuries in Its original form. A concert version survived, much altered by other hands, and this version will be found among the editions of the Purcell Society of the 19th century.
Let no one think that this opera is merely of antiquarian interest. It is a great and lasting work of genius. It is of historical importance as being the only real opera Purcell wrote, but it is noteworthy also for its sheer brilliance and the beauty and pathos of its music.
Wealth of Emotion It shows at its highest development Purcell's sense of musical direction, his power of crystallising in a shortva,F wealthram swir( rea isa
tion of style. These are indeed all the elements of true poetry, whether in word or sound.
The libretto by Nahum Tate has strong dramatic quality and the story is admirably clear, if told in the rather pedestrian verie
of the period. The Lament of Dido is one of the most famous excerpts from this Opera; it is performed on these records with its following chorus, which enhances its beauty a hundredfold.
Meanwhile, during the current moult' of October, the Golden Sonata of Purcell has been issued by the Decca Record (K778 and 779, 12-inch records 2s. 6d. each). It is written for two violins and a harpsichord. Purcell said it was written in the style of Corelli; it shows, at any rate, his ability to assimilate a foreign style.
Musical Landmark
This sonata is one of the landmarks of musical development in Western Europe and is the 17th-century precursor in form of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas of the 19th century. It is a delightful piece of sheer music, recorded here, as near as 20th-century conditions w ill allow, in its original form.
Several other records issued by the Decca Company this month deserve immediate notice, among them being Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings (K775 and 776) by the Boyd Neel. String Orchestra. Elgar wrote this work in 1905. and it is undoubtedly one of his most important contributions to English music.
"The Travelling Companion"
Sir Henry Wood continues to delight tie with his recordings. and. this month we have The Song of die Rhine Daughteis (Gott(.rdammerung) with Jarnclettitle Prcludium on the second side of the second record (K765 and 76(3). Sir Henry Wood has rearranged, for orchestra only, the first part of the last scene of Gout rdammerun the closing section of Wagner's Ring, ilL song in this case being transferred to solo flihbroadcasting
swims. director o Irish to establish (:ranfrint'. Th, Cn. "en apostolate of the ether " by means