0:00:02 > 0:00:04What do you get a Queen for her birthday?
0:00:04 > 0:00:06Diamonds?
0:00:06 > 0:00:08She's got more than she can wear.
0:00:08 > 0:00:09Dresses?
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Already wardrobes full.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Paintings? Two a penny.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18In despair, how about this?
0:00:18 > 0:00:22THEY PLAY
0:00:27 > 0:00:32This is the glorious overture to an Ode for Queen Mary II's birthday,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35written in 1694 by Henry Purcell.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41It's the work of a man who received his musical education at court,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44was paid by the court, and who, for most of his career,
0:00:44 > 0:00:46composed very largely for the court.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50It would be hard to imagine a narrower or more exclusive world
0:00:50 > 0:00:54and yet, you know, it produced the greatest musical genius
0:00:54 > 0:00:57ever to have been born on British soil.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In this series, I'm exploring how monarchy
0:01:02 > 0:01:04has shaped the history of British music
0:01:04 > 0:01:08and that story is never more dramatic than in the 17th century.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14A battle raged about the religion and the power of kings,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17which threatened not only the future of the monarchy
0:01:17 > 0:01:22but the lives of musicians, and the whole tradition of English music.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28And yet, in the midst of this upheaval, the monarchy presided over
0:01:28 > 0:01:32a series of musical breakthroughs -
0:01:32 > 0:01:36from the first chamber concerts and proto-operas,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39to the triumphant debut of the baroque orchestra.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00A faultline ran through the entire 17th century - religion.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04It was the divide between the old faith and the new,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06between Catholic and Protestant,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09and, increasingly, between different kinds of Protestant.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13In 1603, England lost Queen Elizabeth -
0:02:13 > 0:02:18the monarch who had, for 44 years, kept some kind of peace.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Her successor had the potential to reopen all the wounds
0:02:23 > 0:02:24of the religious schism.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30The accession of King James VI of Scotland,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33as James I of England, could have been revolutionary.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36As a Scot, James was a foreigner.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40He'd also been brought up in the Scottish Presbyterian Kirk,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43which was much more radically Protestant
0:02:43 > 0:02:44than the Church of England.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48But the moment he crossed the border,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51he embraced the splendour of the English court and the power
0:02:51 > 0:02:56of his new role as a Supreme Head of the Church of England.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00At the same time, he Anglicised musically.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04He left behind, in Scotland, the musicians who'd served him hitherto,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08and instead he took over complete, and as a going concern,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10the Tudor Chapel Royal,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14which included all the major composers of the day.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16# Oh, clap your hands together
0:03:16 > 0:03:18# Oh, clap your hands together
0:03:18 > 0:03:20# Oh, clap your hands together
0:03:20 > 0:03:22# Oh, clap your hands together
0:03:22 > 0:03:24# Oh, clap your hands together
0:03:24 > 0:03:26# All yea people
0:03:26 > 0:03:30# All yea people... #
0:03:30 > 0:03:34The very same year James came south, the author of this piece
0:03:34 > 0:03:37and one of the greatest composers in English history
0:03:37 > 0:03:40made his first appearance in royal records.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46Orlando Gibbons was from humble but musical stock -
0:03:46 > 0:03:49the son of a civic minstrel in Cambridge, whose talent had
0:03:49 > 0:03:54won him a place as chorister, then student, at King's College.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58He was barely 20 years old when he joined the most prestigious
0:03:58 > 0:04:02musical institution in the land - the Chapel Royal.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09This was the monarchy's personal choir, which had a home at each
0:04:09 > 0:04:14of the King's palaces and which sang at all the great occasions of state.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18# God is gone up with a merry noise
0:04:18 > 0:04:23# And the Lord with the sound of the trump
0:04:23 > 0:04:28# God is gone up with a merry noise... #
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Gibbons brought a new energy and directness to sacred music.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36His choral works are still sung in the Church of England today.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38In his own lifetime, however,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Gibbons was still more prized as a keyboard player
0:04:42 > 0:04:47and as the composer of ground-breaking instrumental music.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51This he created not, primarily, for the King
0:04:51 > 0:04:53but for his heir, Prince Charles.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07This was the kind of music for which Charles had a particular fondness.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10It's an example of an English musical invention -
0:05:10 > 0:05:11the fantasia suite.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27As Prince of Wales, Charles had his own royal household
0:05:27 > 0:05:31and that allowed him to build a musical establishment of his own.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34It was second in size only to the King's
0:05:34 > 0:05:37but it served a very different purpose.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The King's music made the music of state,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44the Prince's band the music of pleasure.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48So, it featured new composers like Orlando Gibbons,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50who worked directly for Prince Charles,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53in addition to his Chapel Royal duties.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56And it also made new kinds of music.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04This instrument, the viol, was a particular favourite of the English
0:06:04 > 0:06:09in the 17th century and it's what Charles himself played rather well.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19In earlier centuries, instrumental music had been seen as little more
0:06:19 > 0:06:22than a hobby for amateurs or something to dance to.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29Charles, unusually for the time, took non-vocal music seriously
0:06:29 > 0:06:31and, as well as performing,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35would listen with the appreciation of a true connoisseur.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39'I think this was the beginnings of the musical concert'
0:06:39 > 0:06:41but, of course, it wasn't just to anybody,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43it was a very specific...
0:06:43 > 0:06:45It would be a tiny circle around the King or the Prince and this,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49- this is household or indeed, literally, chamber music.- Yes.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51The Gibbons we've just heard, for example,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54is very intricate music, very subtle...
0:06:54 > 0:06:55Barely a melody!
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Yeah, there was something, sort of, avant-garde going on there.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Something forging new ways of, of doing this music.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13For example, the opening of the Gibbons,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15we have this extraordinary soundscape
0:07:15 > 0:07:20where these very close dissonances are piled one on top of the other,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23so that there seems to be no relief from them.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26You don't feel that there's any relaxation coming.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39On the one hand there is this searching emotion,
0:07:39 > 0:07:44on the other there's a quite extraordinary technical complexity.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45I mean, music at this point
0:07:45 > 0:07:48is considered a high academic subject, isn't it?
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Mm, and music is often regarded as a science
0:07:51 > 0:07:53rather than an art at this point.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Revealing the underlying harmony of the universe is, in some ways,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59the business of the, of the composer.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Throughout his life, Charles yearned for this harmony,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07elegance and order -
0:08:07 > 0:08:13not just in art but in his faith, and, he was determined, in his rule.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19His Coronation, on 2nd February 1626,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22is the first where we know who wrote the music.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Orlando Gibbons had died the previous year,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30so the role was taken by the Welsh composer Thomas Tomkins.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34# O Lord
0:08:35 > 0:08:39# O Lord
0:08:39 > 0:08:46# Grant the King a long life
0:08:46 > 0:08:49# Grant the King a long life... #
0:08:49 > 0:08:52This is probably the oldest surviving anthem,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54written specifically for a coronation,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57sung here, as it would have been four centuries ago,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59by the choir of Westminster Abbey.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Tomkins' work has none of the pomp of later coronation music
0:09:07 > 0:09:10by Purcell, Handel or Parry.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13At this time, trumpets and drums were not deemed appropriate
0:09:13 > 0:09:16for the sacred part of the rite.
0:09:16 > 0:09:25# He shall dwell before God for ever
0:09:25 > 0:09:30# For ever
0:09:30 > 0:09:37# Lord prepare thy loving mercy and faith... #
0:09:38 > 0:09:44What the anthems do is take an individual action, like the action
0:09:44 > 0:09:50of anointing, and they lift it out of merely the context of Westminster
0:09:50 > 0:09:57on this day, and they place it on a kind of celestial scale.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05It becomes part of not simply the theatre of an individual monarch,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10but it becomes part of a divine theatre, a power and authority,
0:10:10 > 0:10:15in which the king on earth becomes assimilated to the King in heaven.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19# So will we always sing praise unto thy name
0:10:19 > 0:10:24# So will we always sing praise unto thy name
0:10:24 > 0:10:29# So will we always sing praise unto thy name
0:10:29 > 0:10:35# That I may daily perform my vows
0:10:35 > 0:10:37# That I may daily perform... #
0:10:37 > 0:10:40The music, like all aspects of the ceremony,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44confirmed, for Charles, the Divine Right of his royal rule -
0:10:44 > 0:10:48a belief he held more passionately and inflexibly
0:10:48 > 0:10:49than any of his ancestors.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57The Coronation also confirmed the value of the cleric who would
0:10:57 > 0:11:01become his chief adviser, as well as head of the Chapel Royal
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and, in time, Archbishop of Canterbury - William Laud.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Laud acted as Master of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15He took the King through the first ever coronation rehearsal
0:11:15 > 0:11:18and, on the day itself, he arranged signals
0:11:18 > 0:11:21to cue the choirs when to come in.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24The result was that the five-hour ceremony passed
0:11:24 > 0:11:26with scarcely a hitch.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30It also suggested to Charles that Laud's managerial talents
0:11:30 > 0:11:33could be deployed on a bigger stage.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37The King wanted the solemnity, elaboration
0:11:37 > 0:11:41and beauty of the service which Laud had orchestrated at the Abbey
0:11:41 > 0:11:43to be the model for the whole nation.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Charles decreed that England's churches
0:11:48 > 0:11:52should be like the chapels in his palaces, such as Hampton Court.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01This was the Monarch's personal religious space known,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05just like the choir which sang here, as the Chapel Royal.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07And when Charles came to worship here,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11he would have felt the presence of his predecessors.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13He found the fabric of the interior
0:12:13 > 0:12:17pretty much as Henry VIII had left it.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Similarly, the worship, liturgy and magnificent musical traditions of
0:12:21 > 0:12:25the Chapel still owed everything to Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31In most churches, ornate beauty such as this had been
0:12:31 > 0:12:34destroyed by the Protestant Reformation.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36The King's subjects generally worshipped
0:12:36 > 0:12:39in far more austere surroundings.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Now, Charles I with his love of order,
0:12:42 > 0:12:47beauty and uniformity was determined to go the whole hog
0:12:47 > 0:12:52and make the Chapel Royal, hitherto the exception, the rule.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00With Laud as his eager enforcer, the King decreed that churches
0:13:00 > 0:13:06in England should re-establish the symbols and practices of the past.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Charles felt that this was entirely compatible with being Protestant,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13but to the most devout of his subjects, the Puritans,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17the changes looked like a return to Catholicism.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22And music like this, by Thomas Tomkins,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25sounded like a return to Catholicism.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31It's being played on an instrument built during Charles' reign
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and found today in Tewkesbury Abbey.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Nowadays we think of organs
0:13:39 > 0:13:42as the most traditional form of church music.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44But in the reign of Charles I,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46organs and indeed church music itself
0:13:46 > 0:13:49were profoundly controversial.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53This is because church music lay at the heart of the Revolution
0:13:53 > 0:13:57which Laud and King Charles I were determined to impose
0:13:57 > 0:13:59on the Church of England.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04They called it "the beauty of holiness".
0:14:04 > 0:14:09By this they meant that God should be worshipped not only in words
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and by the mind, but also through the senses,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15by sight, through stained glass and painting,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20and, above all, by hearing, through music.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26MAJESTIC ORGAN MUSIC
0:14:26 > 0:14:27Under Laud's direction,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31a multitude of grand new organs were built to replace the many
0:14:31 > 0:14:35which had been removed or silenced by the Protestant Reformation.
0:14:37 > 0:14:38The best, like this one,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42were built by a Lancashire father and son, the Dallams.
0:14:43 > 0:14:49For Laudians, music like this made a joyful sound unto the Lord.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54For Puritans, though, it was a mere obstructive noise.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58One of them thundered against, "The horrible profanation
0:14:58 > 0:15:02"of both the sacraments with all manner of music,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04"both instrumental and vocal,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07"so loud that the Minister could not be heard."
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The organ wars would eventually be fought on a national scale.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18Laudians versus Puritans, high church versus low church,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Royalists versus Parliament, Cavaliers versus Roundheads.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30And yet, whatever the discord in his wider kingdom,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32the art of his court presented Charles
0:15:32 > 0:15:35with a vision of perfect harmony.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41Here, at the Whitehall Banqueting House,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44the King and his Queen, Henrietta Maria,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47presided over the greatest musical occasions of his reign.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54Court masques were the multimedia spectaculars of the day, a mixture
0:15:54 > 0:15:59of music and poetry, singing, dancing, comedy, and fashion show.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Perhaps the most spectacular and certainly the most expensive was
0:16:07 > 0:16:13The Triumph of Peace, staged here before the King and Queen, in 1634.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17It cost a staggering £21,000,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21that's to say several tens of millions of pounds in today's money.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23MALE SOLO VOCAL
0:16:23 > 0:16:26The music was the work of a rising new talent
0:16:26 > 0:16:28at the court of Charles I.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31A dashing blade called William Lawes,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36who would turn out to be as handy with the sword as with the bow.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41SINGING IN BAROQUE STYLE
0:16:59 > 0:17:03This song by Lawes from the Triumph of Peace
0:17:03 > 0:17:07has rarely been performed since 1634.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12THEY SING IN UNISON
0:17:12 > 0:17:15It sounds rather like opera.
0:17:15 > 0:17:16The masque however,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19had been developing at the English court since Tudor times.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And until the 18th century was preferred here
0:17:22 > 0:17:24to its Italian relative.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34But masques were more than mere entertainments.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40They acted as allegories
0:17:40 > 0:17:44of how monarchy brings harmony to the whole world.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47As did the great painting, by Peter Paul Rubens,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50which Charles commissioned for the banqueting house ceiling.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Rubens' ceiling is the perfect representation of divine
0:17:59 > 0:18:03right monarchy in which the King, like God,
0:18:03 > 0:18:08in whose image he is made, rules by reason, law and order.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Outside the court, however,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14there were people who felt that the monarchy
0:18:14 > 0:18:16fell far short of this ideal,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21and that the masque itself was an example of royal corruption.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23For Puritans, masques were sinful.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28One, William Prynne, unwisely went into print with his criticisms.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Prynne's 1,000 page diatribe called actresses "notorious whores",
0:18:33 > 0:18:36just at the time when, in an astonishing development,
0:18:36 > 0:18:41the Queen herself had appeared in a speaking part on the stage.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Archbishop Laud, who had a well reciprocated
0:18:44 > 0:18:49loathing for Prynne, denounced the work as "an infamous treason",
0:18:49 > 0:18:52and had Prynne hauled before the Star Chamber.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56There, he was condemned to a huge fine, to stand in the pillory,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01to have both his ears cut off and to be imprisoned for life.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Charles took the same perfectionist approach to politics as he did
0:19:06 > 0:19:08to his patronage of the arts.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14Opposition was like an ugly picture, or a wrong note.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16He would not tolerate it.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21By the late 1630s,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Charles' relations with Parliament had broken down.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28The elegant fictions of court culture broke with them.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33In this atmosphere, William Lawes wrote music which reflected
0:19:33 > 0:19:36the disintegration of the old order.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS
0:19:42 > 0:19:44It's difficult to avoid the feeling
0:19:44 > 0:19:48that there is something about Lawes' own personal experience...
0:19:48 > 0:19:51- Broken times. - Yes, broken times, indeed.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I'll be quite truthful, before I did this series
0:19:57 > 0:19:59- I'd never heard of William Lawes. - Yes.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And, at the same time listening to the music, it is extraordinary.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06It's unlike anything else, isn't it? And I think...
0:20:06 > 0:20:09A little bit of me says, "Thank God!"
0:20:09 > 0:20:10THEY LAUGH
0:20:10 > 0:20:12- It is very strange. - It's very, very strange.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14The first time... you ask any viol player,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17they'll tell you the first time they played Lawes
0:20:17 > 0:20:20is like coming across late Beethoven for the first time.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24you feel like you're breathing the air from other planets.
0:20:35 > 0:20:41Lawes could have become one of the greatest composers of English music.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44But in 1642, his career was halted
0:20:44 > 0:20:48when civil war finally began in earnest.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53William Lawes, passionately loyal to his royal master, was amongst
0:20:53 > 0:20:57the very few royal musicians who signed up for the King's Army.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00There was an attempt made to protect him
0:21:00 > 0:21:05from the worst risks of war, by making him a provisioning officer.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08But Lawes, as daring in life as in his music,
0:21:08 > 0:21:13was killed at the Siege of Chester in 1645.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Charles, who'd lost his own cousin in the same action,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20nevertheless ordered special mourning for the man that he
0:21:20 > 0:21:23called the "Father of Musick".
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Amid the outpouring of grief,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36a fellow Cavalier poet wrote a bitter, punning epitaph.
0:21:37 > 0:21:44"Will Lawes was slain by those whose wills were laws."
0:21:44 > 0:21:48DRUM MARCH
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Royal music now took on a very different character.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57As the King's men went into battle, this is what they heard.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Charles, punctilious as ever,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03insisted that a standardised drum march was used by his forces.
0:22:03 > 0:22:11DRUM MARCH
0:22:11 > 0:22:17In vain, by 1644 his Puritan opponents were clearly winning.
0:22:19 > 0:22:20And wherever they gained control,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24church music became a casualty of war.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Take the sad fate of Thomas Tomkins.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Since the start of the 17th century,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36he'd combined his duties at the Chapel Royal with
0:22:36 > 0:22:40the job of organist and choirmaster at Worcester Cathedral.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46In September 1642, Parliamentary troops
0:22:46 > 0:22:50burst into the Cathedral and desecrated it.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55But this wasn't the random violence of rampaging soldiers.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Instead, it was a carefully targeted attack on the symbols
0:22:58 > 0:23:03of the beauty of holiness most offensive to the Puritans.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08So the troops smashed the stained glass, they pissed in the font,
0:23:08 > 0:23:12because they thought the use of the sign of cross in Baptism was Popish.
0:23:12 > 0:23:19And they silenced Tomkins's beloved organ by ripping off the pipes.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24These scenes were repeated across the country.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28The attempts, by Charles and Laud, to revive the older traditions
0:23:28 > 0:23:33and music of worship, were systematically undone.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Then Tomkins's study, at the top of his house here,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40where he kept his musical manuscripts, was hit by cannonballs
0:23:40 > 0:23:43fired during the parliamentary bombardment of the city.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48Tomkins had faithfully served his King and his Church.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53Now, in his 70s, he saw everything that he had lived for
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and worked for destroyed.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58CHURCH ORGAN PLAYS
0:24:02 > 0:24:04The court's vast musical establishment,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08by far the best in the land, had been disbanded.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09Its talent destroyed.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14The Chapel Royal ceased to exist.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17And so, in time, did the monarchy itself.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23On the 30th January 1649,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27King Charles returned to the Banqueting House,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30where previously he had savoured the finest music,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33to be beheaded on a scaffold built outside.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Within a fortnight, Thomas Tomkins wrote this piece, which he
0:24:40 > 0:24:45entitled "a sad pavan for these distracted times".
0:24:45 > 0:24:4925 years after writing music for the King's Coronation,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52he'd now written his funeral dirge.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Most organs had been destroyed during the civil war
0:25:01 > 0:25:02and Commonwealth.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06But one that survived was the magnificent Dallam organ,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09in its original home at Magdalen College Oxford.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16In 1654 it too was taken down, but it wasn't destroyed like the rest.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Instead it was carefully dismantled
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and re-erected at Hampton Court Palace, which had just been given to
0:25:22 > 0:25:27Oliver Cromwell, now Lord Protector of England, as his summer residence.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Cromwell? Organs?
0:25:31 > 0:25:36Wasn't the Puritan Lord Protector supposed to hate music?
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Well, he did and he didn't.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43He hated music in Church, but he loved it when he dined or
0:25:43 > 0:25:45when he relaxed.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51So we can imagine Cromwell listening to this organ,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55as it was played at Hampton Court by his Latin secretary,
0:25:55 > 0:26:01fellow Puritan, poet and musician, John Milton.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Which is why, centuries later,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08this instrument is known as the Milton organ.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24MILITARY PIPE BAND PLAYS "THE KING ENJOYS HIS OWN AGAIN"
0:26:27 > 0:26:29During the years of Cromwellian rule,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Charles I's son lived in exile on the Continent.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36His supporters rallied round this song.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11And after Cromwell's death in 1658,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14Parliament did indeed invite the King to return.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19With Charles II came the revival of sacred music which the
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Puritans had fought so hard against.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24MUSIC: "Zadok the Priest"
0:27:24 > 0:27:27# Zadok the Priest
0:27:27 > 0:27:32# And Nathan the Prophet # Anointed Solomon King... #
0:27:36 > 0:27:41When the new King was crowned on St George's Day, 1661,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43amongst the music composed for the occasion was
0:27:43 > 0:27:47a piece by Henry Lawes, brother of the slain William.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54It was a text heard at Coronations since Anglo-Saxon times,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58and still in use today, though, for the last three centuries,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01known in its magnificent setting by Handel.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04# Hallelujah Hallelujah
0:28:04 > 0:28:09# Hallelujah Hallelujah
0:28:09 > 0:28:10# Hallelujah... #
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Musically, the coronation of Charles II was a case of new
0:28:14 > 0:28:17wine in old bottles.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21The music, like Henry Lawes' Zadok the Priest, was new
0:28:21 > 0:28:23and by a new generation of composers.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30But everything else was old, or tried to be.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38So, the same order of service was used, and the same anthems
0:28:38 > 0:28:43were sung, as at the Coronation of Charles I in 1626.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46The Coronation regalia, the crown, the orb, the sceptre, which
0:28:46 > 0:28:50had all been destroyed during the Commonwealth, were remade,
0:28:50 > 0:28:55given their own names, and used in the traditional time-honoured way.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Even the singing was led, as in the old days,
0:28:59 > 0:29:01by the choir of the Chapel Royal.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03But, since the last boy treble,
0:29:03 > 0:29:08who had sung before King Charles I, was now a man of 30,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12the choir of the Chapel Royal had to be reconstructed from scratch.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16# But upon himself
0:29:16 > 0:29:21# Let his crown flourish... #
0:29:22 > 0:29:25At the Coronation, the new choristers were still
0:29:25 > 0:29:29so young and untrained that their voices had to be reinforced by
0:29:29 > 0:29:34men singing falsetto, and were at times drowned out by loud cornets.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41And yet, from this revived Chapel Royal would come all the
0:29:41 > 0:29:47leading composers of the next few decades, among them Pelham Humfrey,
0:29:47 > 0:29:52John Blow, and, within a few years, the greatest of them all.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57# Hallelujah. #
0:30:21 > 0:30:24Henry Purcell was born in 1659,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27the year before the monarchy was restored.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34Both his father and his uncle were at the heart of the new
0:30:34 > 0:30:39regime's musical establishment, working at Westminster Abbey
0:30:39 > 0:30:40and the Chapel Royal.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43And very soon, Henry joined them.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51From the age of about seven, the young Henry Purcell was
0:30:51 > 0:30:55singing for Charles II in the Chapel Royal here at Hampton Court,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59or wherever else the King happened to be in residence.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01By the time that he joined the choir,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05the Chapel Royal had recovered all its former glory.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08This meant, as for the last three centuries, that Purcell was
0:31:08 > 0:31:14now a pupil in by far the best music school in the kingdom.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20# My soul does magnify the Lord... #
0:31:20 > 0:31:23As a choirboy, he learned to read music at sight,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26to perform confidently on the grandest occasions,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and also to play and improvise on keyboard instruments,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34which gave him an insight into the basic principles of composition.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40"Some of the forwardest and brightest
0:31:40 > 0:31:44"children of the Chapel began to be masters of composing.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46"This His Majesty greatly encouraged,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48"by indulging their youthful fancies,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52"so that every month at least, they produced something new.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55"Otherwise, it was in vain to hope to please His Majesty."
0:31:58 > 0:31:59When his voice broke,
0:31:59 > 0:32:03he became a kind of apprentice to the senior musicians
0:32:03 > 0:32:07of the Chapel Royal, who included the best composers of the day.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09He transcribed, edited
0:32:09 > 0:32:14and arranged their music. He also began to compose seriously himself.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21As well as absorbing the glorious English choral tradition,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Purcell's musical imagination would be influenced by another
0:32:24 > 0:32:26aspect of his King's tastes.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30Though in most respects Charles restored
0:32:30 > 0:32:34the customs of his father's court, he was known to utterly detest
0:32:34 > 0:32:39the kind of serious chamber music that Charles I had loved.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42So out went esoteric viol fantasias.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47In came revelry and rhythm to entertain the 'Merry Monarch'.
0:32:50 > 0:32:55"He could not bear any music to which he could not keep the time,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59"and that he constantly did to all that was presented to him."
0:33:01 > 0:33:04What he wanted to do, he wanted to sit back, tap,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07listen to a jolly good tune and have a good dance - it's a
0:33:07 > 0:33:09completely different approach.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11But that's also a public approach.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14This is music as part of pleasure.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18For Charles I, I'm sure it was a pleasure also,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23but it was a much more intellectual, refined pleasure.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Refinement is not a word that springs to mind with Charles II.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34In exile during the years of Cromwell's republic,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Charles had spent a lot of time with his wealthy,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39autocratic cousin, Louis XIV.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45At the French court he saw grand opera-ballet, learned new
0:33:45 > 0:33:50and fashionable dances, and heard the band of 24 violinists,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54drilled by the great Jean Baptiste Lully.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57When Charles returned to England, he brought back French tastes,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01French fashions, and a determination to have exactly
0:34:01 > 0:34:04the same number of violinists himself.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14This was a crucial step on the road to the orchestra.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Violins are the foundation of orchestral sound to this day.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Charles loved their sound so much he even wanted to hear them
0:34:24 > 0:34:26in his Chapel Royal.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29His royal taste led to a unique English form which
0:34:29 > 0:34:31Henry Purcell would make his own.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35The "symphony anthem" alternates rich string segments with
0:34:35 > 0:34:37sung sacred texts.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41# Rejoice in the Lord alway And again
0:34:41 > 0:34:45# I say rejoice Rejoice in the Lord alway
0:34:48 > 0:34:53# And again I say rejoice. #
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Not everyone approved of this new approach to Church music.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08The diarist John Evelyn grumbled.
0:35:08 > 0:35:14"24 violins after the French fantastical light way!
0:35:14 > 0:35:17"Better suited to a tavern or a playhouse than a church."
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Only a few years before,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24even the sound of an organ in church had been controversial.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31Now, Charles was rolling back the boundaries of musical taste, just as
0:35:31 > 0:35:36Purcell was expanding the creative possibilities of musical form.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47# Be careful for nothing But in every thing
0:35:47 > 0:35:50# By prayer and supplication With thanksgiving
0:35:50 > 0:35:54# Let your requests be... #
0:35:54 > 0:35:57There's an operatic quality to the music Purcell
0:35:57 > 0:36:00writes for the soloists. He was clearly paying attention to
0:36:00 > 0:36:02developments in Italy at the time.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08# By prayer and supplication With thanksgiving
0:36:08 > 0:36:13# Let your requests Be made known unto God. #
0:36:17 > 0:36:21But he was also writing here for the specific voices of the Chapel Royal.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30With the Restoration, female singers had begun to perform on stage
0:36:30 > 0:36:34and even at court, but the Chapel was still a male preserve.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41So Purcell wrote the top line here for a counter-tenor.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47# Through Jesus Christ, our Lord
0:36:47 > 0:36:51# Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. #
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Purcell made fair copies of his sacred anthems into this
0:37:00 > 0:37:03scorebook here, in his own handwriting.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06But Purcell didn't only write sacred music.
0:37:09 > 0:37:16Turn the book over, like this, and we find from the other end,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18a similar record of the secular music that he
0:37:18 > 0:37:21composed for the court of Charles II.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25These are odes to mark royal birthdays, weddings,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28military victories and peace treaties.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33# Welcome! Welcome! Vicegerent of the Mighty King
0:37:33 > 0:37:39# That made and governs everything. #
0:37:41 > 0:37:44This is one of Purcell's welcome odes, written for the annual
0:37:44 > 0:37:47occasion of the King's return to London from the country.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Why on Earth welcome the King back to his own capital,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57and moreover do it over and over again, at the same time each year?
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Partly, it was sycophantic nonsense.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04The court followed the same routine every year,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07with the summer at Windsor and the winters in London.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15The odes here gave a ceremonial shape to the year, just as,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19once upon a time, the Church's calendar had done before the Reformation.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26One of the reasons why Purcell isn't listened to as often now as
0:38:26 > 0:38:30he should be is that his genius was poured into this kind of occasional
0:38:30 > 0:38:34royal piece which teeters on the verge of absurdity today.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52The welcome ode to Charles, you sung it with an admirably
0:38:52 > 0:38:55straight face and as though you actually believed it.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Do you simply go into a state of suspension on the words?
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Well, I think you have to kind of sing what you've been given.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04But it's set very well, it's very easy to understand.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08- However clumsy the words...- Yes. - ..they're still made to work. - Exactly.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12Purcell's very good at making the music move with what the
0:39:12 > 0:39:15words are doing. He makes it clear what he's trying to say.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24I'm relatively confident that he had a jolly good sense of humour.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27I think there's an, an amount of tongue-in-cheekness going on, certainly.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38Whatever Purcell thought of the odes,
0:39:38 > 0:39:41there's no doubt that the King would have approved.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44He's addressed at one point as "our mortal deity".
0:39:46 > 0:39:50Charles, like his father, believed he ruled by divine right, but
0:39:50 > 0:39:54he was at least politically shrewd enough not to press the point home.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59And then he's succeeded by a king who has absolutely no
0:39:59 > 0:40:03sense of political reality whatever.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Though Charles fathered many, many children, none of them
0:40:06 > 0:40:09were by his Queen, so none were legitimate heirs.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14When he died in 1685, the throne passed instead to his brother,
0:40:14 > 0:40:20James, who would reopen the wounds of the religious divide once more.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Because James had, scandalously and publicly,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27converted to Catholicism a few years previously.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33Fears of what this meant were initially vanquished by James'
0:40:33 > 0:40:36magnificent Coronation.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Purcell, of course, wrote the music.
0:40:42 > 0:40:48His genius is such that he produces music which immediately
0:40:48 > 0:40:51raises the musical game of the coronation service.
0:40:52 > 0:40:59For example, My Heart Is Inditing starts in a very dense way, there's a seven-part vocal group...
0:41:00 > 0:41:08# My heart is inditing My heart is inditing
0:41:08 > 0:41:10And the vocal parts start one at a time,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13singing the words after each other.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18# My heart is inditing My heart is inditing
0:41:18 > 0:41:22So, you build up the texture, so it sounds like a very busy, colourful tapestry.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29There was this sense of trying to achieve, in a way,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33a pictorial idea of what the Coronation is.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Purcell's anthem is the best music yet performed at a Coronation.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56It's also on much the largest scale.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59The words are new and there'd never even been an anthem at this
0:41:59 > 0:42:04point in the service, the Coronation of the Queen, before.
0:42:04 > 0:42:05Why all the fuss now?
0:42:07 > 0:42:11# She shall be brought unto The King in raiment of needlework
0:42:11 > 0:42:15# She shall be brought... #
0:42:17 > 0:42:20The answer lies in what was left out.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24The Coronation of the Queen, which was simpler and far shorter than
0:42:24 > 0:42:29that of the King, normally followed on the Coronation Communion service.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34But in 1685, both the King, James II,
0:42:34 > 0:42:38and the Queen, Mary of Modena, were Roman Catholics,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42and absolutely refused to take the Protestant Communion.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45The omission of the Communion service left a gaping hole
0:42:45 > 0:42:50spiritually and musically at the heart of the service, which the
0:42:50 > 0:42:55splendours of Purcell's music were almost certainly designed to fill.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01# With joy and gladness... #
0:43:34 > 0:43:36Though Purcell successfully diverted
0:43:36 > 0:43:39attention from James' Catholicism at the Coronation,
0:43:39 > 0:43:45the new King's faith was harder to ignore once his reign was under way.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Things could have been very different if
0:43:48 > 0:43:53James had had only a modicum more political skill, perhaps,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57can one put it differently, had been even moderately dishonest!
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Rather than a, you know, a determined Catholic convert.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10But James believed he had been chosen by God to lead
0:44:10 > 0:44:13the whole nation back to the Catholic faith.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19The result, within three years, was open rebellion.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26The rebels sang a popular song of the day which lampooned
0:44:26 > 0:44:31the hopes of Catholics, complete with the mocking cod-"Oirish" lyrics.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40# Lillibullero, bullen a la
0:44:43 > 0:44:46# Lillibullero, bullen a la. #
0:44:46 > 0:44:50It became the popular rallying cry against King James II.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55"The whole army, and the people, both in city and country,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57"were singing it perpetually."
0:44:57 > 0:44:59# Bullen a la. #
0:45:06 > 0:45:11It's only a song, but it sang King James II out of three kingdoms.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20In 1688, James was deposed by his own daughter Mary,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24and her husband, William of Orange, who invaded from the Netherlands,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27at the invitation of James' leading subjects.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34William and Mary were Protestants, and so, forever more,
0:45:34 > 0:45:36was to be Britain's monarchy.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38It was known as the Glorious Revolution
0:45:38 > 0:45:42and it changed the meaning of monarchy, and its music, forever.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51William and Mary were crowned the following April.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54But this was to be a very different service from any
0:45:54 > 0:45:55of its predecessors.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00The preacher at the Coronation rejoiced in the fact
0:46:00 > 0:46:04that in 1688, the English had chosen the happy,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08middle-way between the anarchical despotism of France on the one
0:46:08 > 0:46:13hand, and the Republican chaos and disorder of the English Commonwealth on the other hand.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16He was roundly applauded by the audience.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21The political atmosphere was further heightened by the presence,
0:46:21 > 0:46:23for the first time, of MPs.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33This was the inaugural event of a limited parliamentary monarchy.
0:46:33 > 0:46:34Divine right was dead
0:46:34 > 0:46:38and the sacredness of kings very nearly died with it.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44But if the Coronation was no longer a sacred rite,
0:46:44 > 0:46:48which consecrated a priest-king, what point was
0:46:48 > 0:46:51there in Purcell writing sublime music for the occasion?
0:46:53 > 0:46:58# Praise the Lord
0:46:59 > 0:47:04# Praise the Lord O Jerusalem
0:47:10 > 0:47:13"Praise the Lord O Jerusalem" seems rather...
0:47:13 > 0:47:18..austere. It starts in the minor key, which is
0:47:18 > 0:47:23an unusual choice of a composer for a praising psalm.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26It's written in a more intimate way
0:47:26 > 0:47:29and a less obviously jolly, flamboyant way.
0:47:30 > 0:47:37# For kings shall be Thy nursing fathers... #
0:47:42 > 0:47:44The texts chosen reflect the changed circumstances -
0:47:44 > 0:47:47the Queen is given equal weight with the King.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51# For Queens shall be # Thy nursing mothers... #
0:47:53 > 0:47:56But Queen Mary thought the Coronation "all vanity",
0:47:56 > 0:48:00King William thought it "a Popish absurdity".
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Purcell's music no longer had any raison d'etre.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Without wishing in any way to denigrate the music,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09it sounds less expensive than
0:48:09 > 0:48:14music of "My Heart Is Inditing" of a few years earlier.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18It's saying this is a little bit more pared down,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21it's less ostentatious, it's a little bit more sombre.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32At previous coronations, music had acted to sanctify the monarchy.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37From now on, that's not what composers would be required
0:48:37 > 0:48:40to do in the Abbey, or anywhere else.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53William and Mary largely withdrew from the traditional
0:48:53 > 0:48:57centre of music and monarchy, the Palace of Whitehall,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59and came instead to Hampton Court, which they
0:48:59 > 0:49:02commissioned Christopher Wren to rebuild.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10It was a case of out with the old and in with the new.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Out went the opulent private apartments of Henry VIII
0:49:13 > 0:49:18and his queens, in came William III's plain-Jane baroque.
0:49:18 > 0:49:25Sober, practical, modern. A bit like William III himself.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29As for music, whether sacred or secular, he was indifferent,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31if not actually hostile.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41Nothing escaped William's reforming zeal. Not the fabric,
0:49:41 > 0:49:45the liturgy, or the musical traditions of the Chapel Royal.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Having survived both reformation and revolution, all of these were
0:49:52 > 0:49:57to be shipwrecked on the rock of William III's religious principles.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00For William, as a committed, lifelong Calvinist,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04was a Protestant of the most thorough-going sort.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07This meant that he thought many, if not most, of the rituals
0:50:07 > 0:50:12of the Chapel Royal were Popish, idolatrous survivals of the worst sort.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21The elaborate and theatrical music of the Chapel Royal,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23always a Protestant bugbear,
0:50:23 > 0:50:27was struck down, when, as one of their first acts,
0:50:27 > 0:50:32William and Mary forbad the use of strings here in the Chapel Royal.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36It sounds so little, but it destroyed so much.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40The glorious and quintessentially English symphony anthem
0:50:40 > 0:50:44died a strange and sudden death.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47But, most striking of all was the effect
0:50:47 > 0:50:50on the Chapel Royal itself, which changed from
0:50:50 > 0:50:56a hothouse of creativity, to the merest backwater, almost overnight.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Purcell, the great symphony anthem composer,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03found himself neglected.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06But he did still have one royal commission -
0:51:06 > 0:51:09writing the annual birthday ode for Queen Mary.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18His composition for 1690 represented the culmination
0:51:18 > 0:51:21of a century of instrumental innovation at court.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27From Charles I's chamber concerts,
0:51:27 > 0:51:33through Charles II's 24 violins, to this -
0:51:33 > 0:51:36A full Baroque orchestra!
0:51:42 > 0:51:45"Arise my Muse", suddenly you have everything there,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47you have the trumpets, the oboes, the violins,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51and Purcell doesn't allow the trumpets to just play simple parts.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56They play pretty much the same kind of material
0:51:56 > 0:52:00that the violins are playing, so they were incredibly virtuosic.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13And also the oboes, it's a quite a strange new animal
0:52:13 > 0:52:16which came into the orchestra at this time.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19It's extraordinary the way he can combine those instruments,
0:52:19 > 0:52:21the way he orchestrates those instruments.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27It's unbelievably skilful and colourful use of an orchestra.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34And yet, just two days after Arise My Muse was first performed,
0:52:34 > 0:52:36William III ordered the Lord Chamberlain
0:52:36 > 0:52:40to slash the number of royal musicians by a third.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49Court music, brought to such heights by Charles I and Charles II,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52went the same way as the Chapel Royal -
0:52:52 > 0:52:56downsized, neglected, now used merely for the odd ball.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04Purcell was forced to take his genius elsewhere
0:53:04 > 0:53:06and the orchestra went with him.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09The work of both would henceforth be enjoyed
0:53:09 > 0:53:12by a rather broader audience than the exclusive world of the court.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20This was to be Purcell's principal habitat
0:53:20 > 0:53:23for the remainder of his career.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28Up to the Glorious Revolution, Purcell had been a court composer,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32but now that William III's austere Protestantism
0:53:32 > 0:53:36declared that Purcell's luscious, orchestrally-accompanied music
0:53:36 > 0:53:39was too theatrical for the Chapel Royal,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Purcell turned to the theatre proper.
0:53:45 > 0:53:51And henceforward wrote almost exclusively for the London stage.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56But one thing didn't change, however - Purcell's staggering productivity.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58In the course of the next five years
0:53:58 > 0:54:01he wrote music for over 40 stage plays.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Purcell even wrote one of the very first English operas,
0:54:14 > 0:54:19Dido and Anaeas, though it was scarcely performed in his lifetime.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Restoration audiences instead preferred
0:54:21 > 0:54:24spectacular romps like King Arthur.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34# The pleasures of love
0:54:34 > 0:54:41# No joys are above the pleasures of love
0:54:41 > 0:54:50# No joys, no joys, no joys, no joys, no joys,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54# No joys are above
0:54:54 > 0:55:02# Love, love, love, no joys are above
0:55:02 > 0:55:10# The pleasures, the pleasures, the pleasures of love. #
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Despite Purcell's resounding success in the theatre
0:55:17 > 0:55:22there's a sense of loss, of exile.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24Purcell was no longer in demand
0:55:24 > 0:55:27in the court that had nourished his genius.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31His principle librettist, John Dryden, had actually been dismissed
0:55:31 > 0:55:35from his royal post of Poet Laureate.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Even the form of the dramatic opera with its lavish combination
0:55:39 > 0:55:44of music, words, dance and spectacle was a descendant
0:55:44 > 0:55:47in exile of the court masques of Charles I's reign.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53And all of them, composer, librettist, dramatic opera,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57were on the London stage only because they were unwanted
0:55:57 > 0:56:00at the new court of the Glorious Revolution.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10But then English music suffered a still more grievous blow.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18Purcell died, at the - even then - shockingly early age of 36.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25At the start of 1695, he'd written this music
0:56:25 > 0:56:28to mourn the premature passing of Queen Mary.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Before the year was out, it was played at his own funeral.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49That flat, hollow sound - it's the majesty, and the finality, of death.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56It is no exaggeration to say that English music died with Purcell.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01He was the last composer in the great Chapel Royal tradition
0:57:01 > 0:57:04which had stretched back through Orlando Gibbons
0:57:04 > 0:57:08to Thomas Tallis, to John Dunstable and even beyond.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12But where, now, was capable of producing a successor?
0:57:14 > 0:57:20The great tragedy of England is that nobody steps into the gap
0:57:20 > 0:57:22as far as music is concerned.
0:57:22 > 0:57:28Once for the religio-political reasons of 1688-89,
0:57:28 > 0:57:33the Chapel Royal is shuttered down, nothing steps into the gap.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40It leaves England with an appetite for music,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43but with no musical infrastructure to provide it.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Audiences continued to pack out London's theatres.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52But Purcell's death left a vacuum of native talent.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56HE SINGS A PIECE BY HANDEL, IN CASTRATI VOICE
0:57:56 > 0:57:59And so, as I'll explore next time,
0:57:59 > 0:58:02the London stage was invaded by Italian opera.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Foreign composers, foreign stars, performing in a foreign language.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14Paradoxically, this happened just at the same time
0:58:14 > 0:58:17that Britain became THE great power in Europe.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20And more ironically still, the composer who restored
0:58:20 > 0:58:25the fortunes of music made in Britain was German - Georg Handel.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd