Born: 1659, London, England
Died: 21 November 1695, London, England

Purcell, Henry

Among the important composers in England's history. He was the king's court composer and wrote religious and secular music for different ceremonies, for the royal family. Apart from music for plays that included singing and dancing, Purcell created the first English opera, "Dido and Aeneas". Among the other plays for which he composed, "Abdelazar", from which Britten took the rondeau for his educational piece "A Young Person's Guide to Orchestra".

As a composer of religious music, in the spirit of the Church of England that wanted to go back to Christianity's roots, he wrote to biblical verse, and Handel was deeply affected by this when he wrote his great oratorios about the stories of the bible. Among the ceremonial and religious hymns he wrote, the most famous is "The Bell Anthem". He wrote more than 500 works, including secular music for plays and operas to church music and cantatas.

Like Mozart, Gershwin and other great composers, Purcell died young, only 36 years old, and was buried in a grand service in Westminster Abbey in London, nearby the famous organ he played in his life, at every coronation of a new English king.

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