6 February 2026

I have just been listening to some music by Henry Purcell  (1659-1695). I studied his ‘Dido and Aeneas’ for my O-Level music and have loved it ever since. The CD features the Deller Consort which was started by Alfred Deller. He was one of the first counter-tenors of the modern era.

Of the music featured, there are two extended anthems which I love. The first is ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’. The words are taken from Philippians 4 and set to  very joyful music. The other is ‘My Beloved Spake’ with words from the ‘Song of Solomon’. As the lover says, ‘Arise, my love, my fair one and come away!’

In the accompanying notes, there is a quote from a contemporary musician, Thomas Tudway. He is thinking about the King’s musical tastes. He writes that King Charles II ‘was soon tired with the grave and solemn ways of the music inherited from Tallis and Byrd’.

He wanted more lively,  joyful  music with voices and  added instrumentation. Purcell was the perfect composer for the restoration of this extrovert  monarchy. It marked the start of something new. The austerity of Cromwell and the Commonwealth experiment was  past!

Of course, Scotland didn’t have the Commonwealth. The nation crowned Charles II in 1649 immediately after his father was beheaded in England. But the merry music of Purcell, which the King ordered up, was not suited to the prevailing mood in Scotland.

Episcopacy had been enforced against the will of many people. The Covenanters were forced to worship outside on the hill. Archbishop Sharp was assassinated on Magus Moor and several people were martyred for their faith like Margaret Wilson, tied to a stake in the Solway Firth, whilst the King rejoiced in merry England and its new music!

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