Purcell | Page 6

methods. In the accounts of the secret-service money for
1664, 1665, and 1666 stand sums of money paid him to defray his
expenses; yet in 1665 the accounts of the "King's Musick" show that
Cooke received £40 "for the maintenance of Pelham Humphryes." In

less than a year's time he was appointed musician for the lute--in the
"King's Musick"--in the place of Nicholas Lanier, deceased. Two
months after this entry the appointment is confirmed by warrant. He
undoubtedly did go abroad. He got, at any rate, as far as Paris, and
came back, says Pepys, "an absolute monsieur"--very vain, loquacious,
and "mighty great" with the King. Most of the musicians of the time
were vain. Cooke must have been intolerable. Perhaps they learnt it
from the actors with whom they associated--many of them, in fact,
were actors as well as musicians. Humphries had worked under Lulli. It
is not known that he had any other master in Paris or in Italy, or
whether he ever got as far as Italy. Up to that date no opera of Lulli's
seems to have been produced, but he was none the less a master of
music, and he could hand on what he had learnt of Carissimi's
technique. Humphries, highly gifted, swift, returned to England
knowing all Lulli could teach him. He had not Purcell's rich
imagination, nor his passion, nor that torrential flow of ever-fresh
melody; but it cannot be doubted that he was of immense service in
indicating new paths and new ways of doing things. He had--at second
hand we must admit--Carissimi's methods and new impulse; and, at the
very least, he saved Purcell the trouble of a journey to Paris. It was a
misfortune for English music that he died so early. These Restoration
geniuses had a way of dying early. He distinctly had genius, a very
different thing from the plodding industry of Dr. John Blow, who
succeeded him in 1674. Dr. Blow afterwards claimed to have been
Purcell's master, and, as Purcell was certainly his pupil, there seems no
reason for doubting him. Purcell was, of course, sixteen years of age
when Humphries died, and no longer a mere choir-boy; but he
remained attached to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
According to the records of the "King's Musick," on June 10, 1673,
there is a "warrant to admit Henry Purcell in the place of keeper, maker,
mender, repayrer and tuner of the regalls, organs, virginalls, flutes and
recorders and all other kind of wind instruments whatsoever, in
ordinary, without fee, to his Majesty, and assistant to John Hingston,
and upon the death or other avoydance of the latter, to come in ordinary
with fee." So late as 1683, when Purcell had been organist of
Westminster Abbey for about three years, he was appointed to be
"organ-maker and keeper in the place of Mr. Hingston, deceased." The

conjecture of Rev. Henry Cart de Lafontaine, editor of these records
(published by Novello) seems to be correct: Purcell must have been
apprenticed to Hingston and afterwards succeeded him. In later
warrants he is authorised to buy wood, metal and Heaven knows what
else--he can buy what he likes as long as he keeps the instruments in
order and in tune. Charles II. had a good ear. In 1676 Purcell was
appointed "copyist" of Westminster Abbey, whatever post that may
have been. In 1677 "Henry Purcell" is "appointed composer in ordinary
with fee for the violin to his Majesty, in the place of Matthew Lock,
deceased." I fancy that his tuition from Dr. Blow must have been
mainly in organ-playing, in which art Dr. Blow was an esteemed
master. At the same time, we must not forget that we have Purcell's
own word for it that Blow was one of the greatest masters of
composition in the world. Purcell spoke of Dr. Blow's technical
mastery of the tricks of canon-writing, which Purcell himself was much
addicted to, and greatly enjoyed. Dr. Blow may have taught Purcell
something of the older technique; that of Lulli and the Italians he must
have learnt from Humphries, for Dr. Blow knew next to nothing about
it. Dr. Blow was born in 1648, and was one year younger than
Humphries, and ten older than Purcell. In 1669 he became organist of
Westminster Abbey. He, like Humphries, and, indeed, all the foremost
musicians of the period, was a bloated pluralist, and held other
positions. It is said that he resigned Westminster Abbey in 1680 in
Purcell's favour. Whether the resignation was voluntary or not, Purcell
assuredly took his place at that date. After Purcell's death in 1695 Dr.
Blow took the position again, and retained it until his own death, in
1708. It is also said that he resigned another place to make way for
another pupil, Jeremiah