#henry purcell biography

[galaxymusicnotes-blog]

The Life and Magnificent Works of Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) truly was a great musical virtuoso. Even more than 300 years after his demise, he was unarguably one of the greatest composers of Britain.

Purcell from the beginning flourished and created great music in his life!He had a gift and talent that gave birth to a genre which was truly his own. He produced exquisite, outstanding melody and a capacity to express diligently which appealed greatly to the audience.

He continues to be both an inspiration and a point for cultural recognition. His musical versatility was so apparent in his magnificent compositions, stage works, church music, instrumental music, keyboard music, operas and plays with incidental music and songs.

Learn more about the "English Orpheus" at: https://galaxymusicnotes.com/pages/about-the-english-composer-henry-purcell

[nellygwyn]

BOOK RECS

Okay, so lots of people wanted this and so, I am compiling a list of my favourite books (both fiction and non-fiction), books that I recommend you read as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, I’ll be pinning this post to the top of my blog (once I work out how to do that lmao) so it will be accessible for old and new followers. I’m going to order this list thematically, I think, just to keep everything tidy and orderly. Of course, a lot of this list will consist of historical fiction and historical non-fiction because that’s what I read primarily and thus, that’s where my bias is, but I promise to try and spice it up just a little bit. 

Favourite fiction books of all time:

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock // Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen

Slammerkin // Emma Donoghue 

Remarkable Creatures // Tracy Chevalier

Life Mask // Emma Donoghue

His Dark Materials // Philip Pullman (this includes the follow-up series The Book of Dust)

Emma // Jane Austen

The Miniaturist // Jessie Burton

Girl, Woman, Other // Bernadine Evaristo 

Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë

Persuasion // Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring // Tracy Chevalier

The Silent Companions // Laura Purcell

Tess of the d’Urbervilles // Thomas Hardy

Northanger Abbey // Jane Austen

The Chronicles of Narnia // C.S. Lewis

Pride and Prejudice // Jane Austen

Goodnight, Mr Tom // Michelle Magorian

The French Lieutenant’s Woman // John Fowles 

The Butcher’s Hook // Janet Ellis 

Mansfield Park // Jane Austen

The All Souls Trilogy // Deborah Harkness

The Railway Children // Edith Nesbit

Favourite non-fiction books of all time

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman // Robert Massie

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King // Antonia Fraser

Madame de Pompadour // Nancy Mitford

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach // Matthew Dennison 

Black and British: A Forgotten History // David Olusoga

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court // Lucy Worsley 

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife of Henry VIII // Gareth Russell

King Charles II // Antonia Fraser

Casanova’s Women // Judith Summers

Marie Antoinette: The Journey // Antonia Fraser

Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King // Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen at Home // Lucy Worsley

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames // Lara Maiklem

The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth // Anna Keay

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill // Christopher Hibbert

Nell Gwynn: A Biography // Charles Beauclerk

Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters // Patricia Pierce

Georgian London: Into the Streets // Lucy Inglis

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart // Sarah Fraser

Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match // Wendy Moore

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from the Stone Age to the Silver Screen // Greg Jenner

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum // Kathryn Hughes

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey // Nicola Tallis

Favourite books about the history of sex and/or sex work

The Origins of Sex: A History of First Sexual Revolution // Faramerz Dabhoiwala 

Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris // Nina Kushner

Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore // Julie Peakman

Courtesans // Katie Hickman

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in mid-Nineteenth Century England

Madams, Bawds, and Brothel Keepers // Fergus Linnane

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital // Dan Cruickshank 

A Curious History of Sex // Kate Lister

Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire // Eric Berkowitz

Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray // Barbara White

Rent Boys: A History from Ancient Times to Present // Michael Hone

Celeste // Roland Perry

Sex and the Gender Revolution // Randolph Trumbach

The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex // Julie Peakman

LGBT+ fiction I love*

The Confessions of the Fox // Jordy Rosenberg 

As Meat Loves Salt // Maria Mccann

Bone China // Laura Purcell

Brideshead Revisited // Evelyn Waugh

The Confessions of Frannie Langton // Sara Collins

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle // Neil Blackmore

Orlando // Virginia Woolf

Tipping the Velvet // Sarah Waters

She Rises // Kate Worsley

The Mercies // Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit // Jeanette Winterson

Maurice // E.M Forster

Frankisstein: A Love Story // Jeanette Winterson

If I Was Your Girl // Meredith Russo 

The Well of Loneliness // Radclyffe Hall 

* fyi, Life Mask and Girl, Woman, Other are also LGBT+ fiction

Classics I haven’t already mentioned (including children’s classics)

Far From the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy 

I Capture the Castle // Dodie Smith 

Vanity Fair // William Makepeace Thackeray 

Wuthering Heights // Emily Brontë

The Blazing World // Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Murder on the Orient Express // Agatha Christie 

Great Expectations // Charles Dickens

North and South // Elizabeth Gaskell

Evelina // Frances Burney

Death on the Nile // Agatha Christie

The Monk // Matthew Lewis

Frankenstein // Mary Shelley

Vilette // Charlotte Brontë

The Mayor of Casterbridge // Thomas Hardy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall // Anne Brontë

Vile Bodies // Evelyn Waugh

Beloved // Toni Morrison 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Agatha Christie

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling // Henry Fielding

A Room With a View // E.M. Forster

Silas Marner // George Eliot 

Jude the Obscure // Thomas Hardy

My Man Jeeves // P.G. Wodehouse

Lady Audley’s Secret // Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Middlemarch // George Eliot

Little Women // Louisa May Alcott

Children of the New Forest // Frederick Marryat

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings // Maya Angelou 

Rebecca // Daphne du Maurier

Alice in Wonderland // Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows // Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina // Leo Tolstoy

Howard’s End // E.M. Forster

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 // Sue Townsend

Even more fiction recommendations

The Darling Strumpet // Gillian Bagwell

The Wolf Hall trilogy // Hilary Mantel

The Illumination of Ursula Flight // Anne-Marie Crowhurst

Queenie // Candace Carty-Williams

Forever Amber // Kathleen Winsor

The Corset // Laura Purcell

Love in Colour // Bolu Babalola

Artemisia // Alexandra Lapierre

Blackberry and Wild Rose // Sonia Velton

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories // Angela Carter

The Languedoc trilogy // Kate Mosse

Longbourn // Jo Baker

A Skinful of Shadows // Frances Hardinge

The Black Moth // Georgette Heyer

The Far Pavilions // M.M Kaye

The Essex Serpent // Sarah Perry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cavalier Queen // Fiona Mountain 

The Winter Palace // Eva Stachniak

Friday’s Child // Georgette Heyer

Falling Angels // Tracy Chevalier

Little // Edward Carey

Chocolat // Joanne Harris 

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street // Natasha Pulley 

My Sister, the Serial Killer // Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Convenient Marriage // Georgette Heyer

Katie Mulholland // Catherine Cookson

Restoration // Rose Tremain

Meat Market // Juno Dawson

Lady on the Coin // Margaret Campbell Bowes

In the Company of the Courtesan // Sarah Dunant

The Crimson Petal and the White // Michel Faber

A Place of Greater Safety // Hilary Mantel 

The Little Shop of Found Things // Paula Brackston

The Improbability of Love // Hannah Rothschild

The Murder Most Unladylike series // Robin Stevens

Dark Angels // Karleen Koen

The Words in My Hand // Guinevere Glasfurd

Time’s Convert // Deborah Harkness

The Collector // John Fowles

Vivaldi’s Virgins // Barbara Quick

The Foundling // Stacey Halls

The Phantom Tree // Nicola Cornick

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle // Stuart Turton

Golden Hill // Francis Spufford

Assorted non-fiction not yet mentioned

The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World // Deborah Cadbury

The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History to the Italian Renaissance // Catherine Fletcher

All the King's Women: Love, Sex, and Politics in the life of Charles II // Derek Jackson

Mozart’s Women // Jane Glover

Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and His Court // R.E. Pritchard

Matilda: Queen, Empress, Warrior // Catherine Hanley 

Black Tudors // Miranda Kaufman 

To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape // Charles Spencer

1666: Plague, War and Hellfire // Rebecca Rideal

Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen // Alison Plowden

Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen // Sarah-Beth Watkins

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses // Helen Rappaport

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 // Stella Tillyard 

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir // Michael Bundock

Black London: Life Before Emancipation // Gretchen Gerzina

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815

The King’s Mistress: Scandal, Intrigue and the True Story of the Woman who Stole the Heart of George I // Claudia Gold

Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson // Paula Byrne

The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England // Amanda Vickery

Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding School, 1939-1979 // Ysenda Maxtone Graham 

Fanny Burney: A Biography // Claire Harman

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life // Janet Todd

The Imperial Harem: Women and the Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire // Leslie Peirce

The Fall of the House of Byron // Emily Brand

The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough // Ophelia Field

Night-Walking: A Nocturnal History of London // Matthew Beaumont, Will Self

Jane Austen: A Life // Claire Tomalin

Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton // Flora Fraser

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the 18th Century // John Brewer

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant // Tracy Borman

City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London // Tom Almeroth-Williams

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion // Anne Somerset 

Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman 

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe // Anthony Summers

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day // Peter Ackroyd 

Elizabeth I and Her Circle // Susan Doran

African Europeans: An Untold History // Olivette Otele 

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives // Daisy Hay

How to Create the Perfect Wife // Wendy Moore

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough // Hugo Vickers

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn // Eric Ives

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy // Barbara Ehrenreich

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie // Kathryn Harkup 

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II // Linda Porter

Female Husbands: A Trans History // Jen Manion

Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day // Anne Somerset

Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country // Edward Parnell 

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles // Ned Palmer

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine // Lindsey Fitzharris

Medieval Woman: Village Life in the Middle Ages // Ann Baer

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York // Anne de Courcy

The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc // Suzannah Lipscomb

The Daughters of the Winter Queen // Nancy Goldstone

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency // Bea Koch

Bess of Hardwick // Mary S. Lovell

The Royal Art of Poison // Eleanor Herman 

The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Hanoverians // Janice Hadlow

Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football; How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment // Lee Jackson

Favourite books about current social/political issues (?? for lack of a better term)

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power // Lola Olufemi

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights // Molly Smith, Juno Mac

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race // Reni Eddo-Lodge

Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows // Christine Burns

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism // Alison Phipps

Trans Like Me: A Journey For All Of Us // C.N Lester

Brit(Ish): On Race, Identity, and Belonging // Afua Hirsch 

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution // Dan Hicks

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living // Jes M. Baker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot // Mikki Kendall

Denial: Holocaust History on Trial // Deborah Lipstadt

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape // Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman

Don’t Touch My Hair // Emma Dabiri

Sister Outsider // Audre Lorde 

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen // Amrou Al-Kadhi

Trans Power // Juno Roche

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons // Imani Perry

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment // Amelia Gentleman

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You // Sofie Hagen

Diaries, memoirs & letters

The Diary of a Young Girl // Anne Frank

Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust // Renia Spiegel 

Writing Home // Alan Bennett

The Diary of Samuel Pepys // Samuel Pepys

Histoire de Ma Vie // Giacomo Casanova

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger // Nigel Slater

London Journal, 1762-1763 // James Boswell

The Diary of a Bookseller // Shaun Blythell 

Jane Austen’s Letters // edited by Deidre la Faye

H is for Hawk // Helen Mcdonald 

The Salt Path // Raynor Winn

The Glitter and the Gold // Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough

Journals and Letters // Fanny Burney

Educated // Tara Westover

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading // Lucy Mangan

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? // Jeanette Winterson

A Dutiful Boy // Mohsin Zaidi

Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler // Christine Keeler

800 Years of Women’s Letters // edited by Olga Kenyon

Istanbul // Orhan Pamuk

Henry and June // Anaïs Nin

Historical romance (this is a short list because I’m still fairly new to this genre)

The Bridgerton series // Julia Quinn

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover // Sarah Mclean

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake // Sarah Mclean

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics // Olivia Waite

That Could Be Enough // Alyssa Cole

Unveiled // Courtney Milan

The Craft of Love // EE Ottoman

The Maiden Lane series // Elizabeth Hoyt

An Extraordinary Union // Alyssa Cole

Slightly Dangerous // Mary Balogh

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance // Jennieke Cohen

A Fashionable Indulgence // KJ Charles

[viendiletto]

I love your blog and you seem to be such a knowledgeable person!!! Could you suggest me some books, music, essays or biographies that you love? You're a big inspiration for me 🖤

Thank you so much, love! I hope you will read and listen to some of these, then!

Novels:

Il Piacere by Gabriele d’Annunzio

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

L’homme qui rit by Victor Hugo

Die Leiden des jungen Werthers by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Les amitiés particulières by Roger Peyrefitte

La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas

Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis by Ugo Foscolo

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by AntoineFrançois Prévost

Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti by Luigi da Porto

Le sang noir by Louis Guilloux

Malombra by Antonio Fogazzaro

Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore by Luigi Pirandello

Les amitiés particuliers by Roger Preyfette

Music:

Ernani (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Giovanna d’Arco (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Luisa Miller (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Rigoletto (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Il Trovatore (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

La Traviata (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Aida (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Otello (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi

Mazurkas by Fryderyk Chopin

Ballad No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 by Fryderyk Chopin

14 waltzes by Fryderyk Chopin

Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31 by Fryderyk Chopin

Scherzo No. 4 in E, Op. 54 by Fryderyk Chopin

19 nocturnes by Fryderyk Chopin

Symphony No. 3 in F major, No. 90 by Johannes Brahms

String quartet in D minor, D. 810 by Franz Schubert

String quartet in G minor, D. 887 by Franz Schubert

Inspiration a Baveno, Op. 4a by Marco Enrico Bossi

Cello suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Cello suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Toccata in D minor, BWV 913 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Matthäus-Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johannes-Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach

Violin sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Sonata No. 2 in E minor by Benedetto Marcello

Sonata No. 3 in A minor by Benedetto Marcello

Sonata No. 4 in G minor by Benedetto Marcello

Piano sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 by Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano sonata No, 30 in E, Op. 109 by Ludwig van Beethoven

Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi

Tosca (opera) by Giacomo Puccini

Manon Lescaut (opera) by Giacomo Puccini

Crisantemi by Giacomo Puccini

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (opera) by Vincenzo Bellini

Sei ariette da camera dedicate a Marianna Pollini by Vincenzo Bellini

Symphony in B flat major by Vincenzo Bellini

Lucia di Lammermoor (opera) by Gaetano Donizetti

Requiem, Op. 48 by Gabriel Fauré

Élégie, Op. 24 by Gabriel Fauré

Dido and Aeneas (opera) by Henry Purcell

The Gordian Knot Unty’d by Henry Purcell

Serenade in B flat, K. 361 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mauerische Trauermusik, K. 477 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Requiem in D minor, K. 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Adagio and fugue in C minor, K. 546 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Great mass in C minor, K. 427 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony in A minor, K. 16a by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Quartet in C major, K. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Giselle (ballet) by Adolphe Adam

Miserere by Gregorio Allegri

The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66 (ballet) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Damia (French singer)

Dalida (Italian-French singer)

Yves Montand (Italian-French singer)

Luigi Tenco (Italian singer)

Tefta Tashko (Albanian singer)

Roberto Murolo (Italian singer)

Maria Carta (Italian singer)

Ámalia Rodrigues (Portuguese singer)

Asmahan (Syrian singer)

Fabrizio De André (Italian singer)

Françoise Hardy (French singer)

Imperio Argentina (Spanish-Argentinean singer)

Lina Termini (Italian singer)

Marie Laforêt (French singer)

Édith Piaf (French singer)

Umm Kulthum (Egyptian singer)

Rezső Seress (Hungarian singer)

Barbara (French singer)

Essays:

I benandanti. Ricerche sulla stregoneria e sui culti agrari tra Cinquecento e Seicento by Carlo Ginzburg

Italienische Reise by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Anonimo Gaddiano

Libro dell’arte by Cennino Cennini

Biographies:

Ma double vie by Sarah Bernhardt

Lucrezia Borgia, la sua vita e i suoi tempi by Maria Bellonci

Elisabeth, Kaiserin wider Willen by Brigitte Hamann

L’impératrice by Nicole Avril

[babakziai]

They’ve perched for hours on that window-ledge, scarcely    moving. Beak to beak, a matched set, they differ    almost imperceptibly— like salt and pepper shakers. It’s an event when they tuck    (simultaneously) their pinpoint    heads into lavender vests of fat. But reminiscent    of clock hands blandly    turning because they must have turned—somehow, they’ve    taken on the grave,    small-eyed aspect of monks hooded in conferences so intimate nothing need be said. If some are chuckling in the park, earning their bread, these are content    to let the dark engulf them— it’s all the human    imagination can fathom,    how single-mindedly mindless two silhouettes    stand in a window thick    as milk glass. They appear never to have fed on    anything else when they stir    all of a sudden to peck savagely, for love or hygiene, at the grimy    feathers of the other; but when they resume    their places, the shift    is one only a painter or a barber (prodding a chin    back into position)    would be likely to notice. Mary Jo Salter, “Two Pigeons” from Henry Purcell in Japan (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984). Copyright © 1984 by Mary Jo Salter. Reprinted with the permission of the author. Source: Henry Purcell in Japan(1984) Mary Jo Salter BiographyMore poems by this author Poem of the Day: Two Pigeons Poem of the Day: Two Pigeons Poem of The Day {$excerpt:n} Source: Poem of The Day

http://babakziai.org/poem-of-the-day-two-pigeons/

[archinform]

Lost Chicago Building 1: The Edison Shop, 1912

This is the first in a series of posts about historic Chicago buildings that have disappeared.

THE EDISON SHOP

Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, 1912

By Roger E. Jones

The Edison Shop, 1912, Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, architects. Illustration from The Western Architect, Vol. 19 No. 5 May 1913.

Introduction

The Edison Shop, completed in 1912, was a small commercial building of four stories housing a store that sold Edison phonographs.  My first knowledge of this building, which stood at 229 South Wabash Ave. in Chicago’s Loop, came as I was browsing an issue of The Western Architect of May 1913, with a series of pages devoted to this structure.[1] As an example of Chicago’s early 20th-century commercial architecture, much of which has been lost, this small building seemed to show design influences from the Chicago School, Prairie School, the arts and crafts movement, and echoes of European modernism. It existed, I found, at the intersection of various architectural careers, including those of William Purcell, George Elmslie, George Feick, Jr., Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and interior designer George Niedecken.

The Edison Shop, 1912, Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, architects. Illustration from The Western Architect, Vol. 19 No. 5 May 1913.

The only downtown Chicago office building designed by Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, of Minneapolis, the building was notable for its use of buff brick and terra-cotta ornament, combined with large expanse of glass on its west-facing facade.[2] Its geometric design and tension between vertical and horizontal elements, its stark appearance relieved by sparing ornamentation in its fourth story and toward the cornice, gave the building a striking appearance. The top illustration shows the shop’s deeply recessed entry, drawing visitors in, as well as plantings that give its front a welcoming look as well as softening its severity. Large display windows opened the facade visually and would have offered views from the elevated Loop structure which the shop faced.

Designated a Chicago Architectural Landmark 1959, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks described the shop as "a place of dignity and beauty."[3] Nevertheless, the building was demolished a decade later.

The Edison Shop was owned by Henry B. Babson and sold Edison phonograph machines. It was one of three buildings designed for this purpose by Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, which and have been described as “high points in their commercial design.”[4]

Carefully placed display windows were intended to entice the customer within the store, where the integrated treatment of furniture, light fixtures, and other decorations created a unified merchandising space. From time to time, Elmslie designed instrument panels or whole cases to replace the awkwardly styled factory made cabinets. Other comparable Edison Shops were built in Kansas City, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.[5]

The Chicago commission apparently involved a new facade and new interior architecture; it was not, then, a completely new building.[6] During its history, in addition, it was known by different names: Edison Building, Edison Phonograph Shop, and the Babson Brothers Building.

The building’s vertical grouping of large entrance and window openings, as well as its terracotta capitals and central ornament below a shallow cornice, lead the eye upward, and show some influence of Louis Sullivan’s commercial work. A comparison of The Edison Shop to Sullivan’s Gage Building (1899), on Michigan Avenue, shows a similar interplay of horizontals and verticals, and sparing use of ornament above the ground floor. The Edison Shop’s design would employ these elements on a smaller scale and in a more severe, abstract manner.

The Gage Building, 1898, 30 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago Louis Sullivan, architecthttp://bldg51.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fty_51.jpg

A comparison to Sullivan is appropriate, as Both Purcell and Elmslie had worked in Sullivan’s Chicago office, Elmslie designing some of the ornament on Sullivan’s buildings.

Fortunately, there were some good visual resources available for The Edison Shop, some of which are reproduced here. Sources include the Art of Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Library, architectural periodicals such as The Western Architect, Explore Chicago Collections, and the University of Minnesota Libraries, Northwest Architectural Archives, William Gray Purcell Papers. The three versions of the architectural firm (Purcell and Feick 1907-1910; Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie 1910-1913; Purcell and Elmslie 1913-1921) achieved great notoriety during and after their periods of practice.

 Rendering by the architects; Ryerson and Burnham Archives, Art Institute of Chicago.

https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/search/searchterm/Babson%20Brothers%20Building/field/altern/mode/exact/conn/and

Frieze panel, photo c. 1964, Historic American Buildings Survey.

https://organica.org/pejn170_13.htm

Henry Babson

Henry Babson (1874-1970), a native of Nebraska, had a career in many areas of the sound recording industry. Starting in 1903, he traveled worldwide as a representative for the Victor Talking Machine Company, reportedly selling over $100,000 worth of phonographs. He subsequently started the Babson Brothers Company in Chicago with his brothers, Fred and Gus.  It was a catalog mail order company and a major seller of the Edison Phonograph. Babson would become a major stockholder in the Victor Talking Machine Company, maker of the popular Victrola phonograph; the company was later acquired by RCA. Babson enjoyed racing custom sailboats, and, in the 1930s, began to import Arabian horses to the United States.[7]

Left: Chicago Talking Machine Co., “H.B. Babson, Prest.,” Catalog, c. 1898

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Talking_Machine_Company 

Right: Edison phonograph and records advertisement, c. 1915.F.K. Babson was Henry’s brother, Fred.

In 1907, Henry Babson had commissioned Louis Sullivan to design a 28-acre estate in Riverside, Illinois.

Henry K. Babson residence, Riverside, Ill., 1908, Louis Sullivan, architect (demolished)

http://chicagopatterns.com/louis-sullivan-frank-lloyd-wright-charnley-house-part-3/

 Purcell and Elmslie would design two subsidiary buildings for this estate, in 1914 and 1915. Though the main residence has been lost, the other two buildings remain.[8] Among furnishings designed by the firm for the Babson residence is a Tall Clock, 1912, now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Tall Clock, 1912, Designed for the Babson Residence by George Grant Elmslie

(of Purcell, Feick and Elmslie); Manufactured by Niedecken-Walbridge, Milwaukee. Mahogany with brass inlay

Art Institute of Chicago 1971.322

The Interior: George M. Niedecken

George Mann Niedecken. George Mann Niedecken Archives, Milwaukee Art Museum

https://mam.org/collection/archives/prairie/

George Mann Niedecken (1878–1945) was a well-known designer of furniture and a self-called “interior architect,” who worked in Milwaukee from 1903 to 1945. His Milwaukee Art Museum biography notes that

Niedecken’s designs were based on a synthesis of styles: Arts and Crafts, Prairie School, Art Nouveau, and Vienna Secessionist, among others. His philosophy was to unify interior furnishings with the building as a whole by working collaboratively with the architect and the client.[9]

Niedecken studied art in several locations in Europe, and after meeting Otto Wagner, leading member of the Secessionist group, became influenced by the group’s simple, geometric motifs. He subsequently studied at the Académie Julien in Paris, under artist and designer Alphonse Mucha. Returning to Milwaukee in 1902, he taught decorative arts at the Wisconsin School of Arts, and exhibited designs at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he came to the notice of Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom he would work on 12 commissions. In 1907, Niedecken started his own interior design firm with his brother-in-law, John Walbridge, and by 1910 had established his own furniture shop.[10]

The interior of The Edison Shop, credited to Niedecken in The Western Architect, May 1913, was amply illustrated in this issue. The shop seemed designed for the comfort of its customers: upholstered wooden armchairs, tables, sofas, and elegant rugs seem to belong to a club interior or luxurious waiting area. There is hardly an item of merchandise in sight in the illustrations in The Western Architect of May 1913; a couple of tall phonographs are just visible in the first- floor display window. This was certainly an interior much different from any of today’s audio or electronics stores.

George Mann Niedecken, mural for the Meyer May House, 1908-09, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Frank Lloyd Wright, architect. Source: https://meyermayhouse.steelcase.com/

Plans of first and second stories, The Edison Shop

The Western Architect, May 1913

 A look at the first and second floor plans shows how narrow and deep the building’s footprint was. Seating areas at the front of each story are illuminated by the large front windows. The middle section of each story contains listening booths – 5 on the first floor and 7 on the second – where customers could listen to phonographs in comfort. The first floor, in addition, featured a Concert Room,for musical performances or auditions of Edison phonographs.

Stairs and an elevator linked the floors. It is unclear, however, what purpose the upper two floors served; they may have housed offices, stock, or been leased. Microfilm images of the original plans in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago, are quite indistinct, the writing indecipherable.

The furniture, designed by Niedecken or in cooperation with the architects, includes upholstered armchairs with angular arms, and appear as wooden frames filled in partly with wood panels, boxy and somewhat severe-looking, apart from legs that curve at the bottom. Wooden tables echo influences of the contemporary arts and crafts or mission style, and side chairs with upholstered seats, quite plain in treatment, are arranged along the long side wall.

Edison Shop, interior, first floor

University of Minnesota Libraries, Northwest Architectural Archives, William Gray Purcell Papers

https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll109:1578

 First-story walls are partly paneled in wood to about half the wall height, the panels framing painted wall surfaces. Wooden bands continue to the top of the wall, which angles inward at the top, and then across the ceiling. Stenciled decoration is evident the entire length of these bands of wood, giving continuity to the design and enclosing the space. Lighting on the first floor is from wall-mounted fixtures with downward-pointing prism shades; the second-floor fixtures are hanging glass bowls, suspended by metal rods from the ceiling.

The first-floor Concert Room featured wicker furniture, a small stage with an Edison upright cabinet phonograph, and upper walls decorated with a mural of tree branches, leaves, and hanging lanterns. It seems an elegant environment in which to audition sound equipment. In this room, one wonders whether, as in period Edison advertisements for “The Phonograph with a Soul,” audience members tried to guess: Is it an opera singer, or is it an Edison?

 1919 Edison Phonograph advertisement

“Concert Room, Edison Phonograph Company Building, Chicago.”

The Western Architect, May 1913

Concert Room (detail of previous illustration), showing the mural decoration of tree branches, leaves, and hanging lanterns.

Perhaps the most fascinating object designed for The Edison Shop is a hanging electrolier, over the main entrance and outside the large display window. This enormously complex light fixture seems designed to attract customers into the shop beyond.

Electrolier, The Edison Shop. The Western Architect, May 1913

https://organica.org/pejn170_5.htm

 A detail of the facade shows the shop entryway with the electrolier. A large display window in the center attracted the attention of passersby, while the entrance was to the left, behind a display case filling the area between two piers. Illustration from The Western Architect, Vol. 19 No. 5 May 1913.

The Architects: Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie

Top: “William Gray Purcell, left, sits in an office with George Feick Jr. in 1908, the year the two Cornell classmates established their own Minneapolis firm.”https://web-b-ebscohost-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=a98fb521-cf99-496e-b86c-580ca23d7327%40pdc-v-sessmgr03 

Bottom: George Feick, Jr., William Gray Purcell, and George Grant Elmslie Photo: Northwest Architectural Archiveshttp://artsmia.org/unified-vision/introduction/credits.cfm 

Left: William Gray Purcell. Source: pcad.lib.washington.edu

Right: George Grant Elmslie. Source: prairiestyles.com

  William Gray Purcell (1880-1965) and George Feick, Jr. (1881-1945)[11] had been classmates at Cornell, traveled in Europe together, and in 1907 formed the partnership Purcell and Feick. Purcell’s family had moved to Oak Park, Illinois, and he would have been familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright’s work there. Feick, Jr. was the son of George Feick, an Ohio contractor. The partnership lasted until 1910, when the firm became Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie.

Purcell met George Grant Elmslie (1869-1952), then the chief draftsman for Louis Sullivan, at a dinner in Oak Park, Illinois. Elmslie secured a position in Sullivan’s office for Purcell.

After his first sight of Sullivan's newly-built Auditorium at age 10, the awestruck Purcell resolved to become an archi­tect. He studied at Cornell from 1899-1903, and following graduation, he returned to Chicago where he entered Sulli­van's office. Although he spent only five months there, it was a profound experience: he was exposed to the organic philos­ophy of the Master's architecture which was to infuse his own work thereafter, and he became a close friend of George Grant Elmslie, Sullivan's chief draftsman.[12]

Elmslie was born in Scotland and migrated to the U.S. with his family in the mid-1880s. The family settled in Chicago, and Elmslie started his architectural career in the office of Joseph Silsbee, and later spent 20 years in Louis Sullivan’s (Adler & Sullivan until 1893) practice. Elmslie “designed most of the ornamentation that graced Sullivan's buildings,”[13] including that of the Schlesinger & Mayer (later Carson Pirie Scott) store. Due to Louis Sullivan’s declining business fortunes, in 1909 Elmslie searched for a more reliable situation, and by 1910 had moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.[14]

Feick left the partnership in 1913, when he returned to Sandusky, Ohio to join the building firm George Feick and Sons Company with his father and brother Emil. The partnership of Purcell & Elmslie endured until 1921, though both men operated offices in separate cities. The firm produced designs for buildings in twenty-two states, Australia, and China, with offices in several cities. Viewed as among the chief 20th-century prairie school designers, or more generally, as "progressive" architects, the firm was responsible for a huge number of prairie-style houses and a variety of commercial work; they are credited with receiving “more commissions than any other firm of progressive architects after Frank Lloyd Wright.”[15]

Purcell and Feick's architecture is marked by buildings rarely accompanied by decoration beyond opportunities afforded by building materials. Elmslie's entry into the partnership brought an added complexity of composition and ornamental design, tying their work more directly to Louis Sullivan's decorative tradition. Purcell contributed an imaginative sense of space and the ideal of developing a better living environment for the middle class, quickly establishing a national reputation for the firm.[16]

The William Gray Purcell Papers, housed in the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, document much of the firm’s work.[17] Documents relating to the design of The Edison Shop in Chicago are available both in online archives, and in digitized volumes of architectural periodicals, all listed in the Notes and in the Online Resources / Links section.

Preliminary designs, Edison Shop / Babson Bros. Building, Chicago, Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie, architects

University of Minnesota Libraries online U Media Archive https://organica.org/pejn170_5.htm

Elevation, The Edison Shop; Source: Explore Chicago Collections

https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/artic/85/qv3cs85/

Designs for The Edison Shop (Babson Brothers Building), Chicago, “A building designed to meet the various especial requirements for the display and sale of phonographs”

The Western Architect, January 1913

Left: A Purcell and Elmslie advertising brochure featured The Edison Shop, Chicago.

Right: “Edison Phonograph Shop, Chicago, Original drawings by G.G.E.” Detail of central façade ornament https://organica.org/pejn170_5.htm

 The building’s later years

Sanborn Map of Chicago, 1927: The Edison Shop, 229 S. Wabash, Ave., is indicated with EDISON.

The Edison Shop in 1917 with its neighbor, building for the John Church Co., Mundie & Jensen, Architects

The Western Architect v. 24 no. 4 April 1917, p. 25

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuc.1845007v25&view=1up&seq=77

Hung Fa Village occupied the building in the 1960s. The lighter building on the right, at 243 S. Wabash at the corner of Jackson, is now occupied by the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media.

 The Edison Shop was evidently remodeled in 1933.[18] Although the building had been listed a Chicago Architectural Landmark in 1959, by August 1964, when a Historic American Buildings Survey was conducted, its condition was listed as “fair.”  The building’s owner, J. & R. Investment Company, indicated that the building would be demolished when the current occupant’s leased expired. Hung Fa Village Chinese Restaurant and Key Club occupied the building. By this time, the buildings on either side had been razed.[19]

The building was demolished in 1967, and the site on S. Wabash Ave. where it, as well as adjacent buildings, stood is now a parking area directly behind Symphony Center. Its unfortunate loss further erased some important links to Chicago’s commercial and architectural past.

 View of The Edison Shop from above.

Photograph: Richard Nickel. Ryerson and Burnham Archives, Art Institute of Chicago

https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/search/searchterm/Babson%20Brothers%20Building/field/altern/mode/exact/conn/and

  Notes:

1 “The Edison Shop,” The Western Architect Vol. 19 No. 5 May 1913, no page numbers.

2 Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress), HABS IL-1044, 1959, data sheet.

3 Lowe, David Garrard, Lost Chicago. The University of Chicago Press, 2010. Illustration caption, p. 226.

4 Biographical Notes: William Gray Purcell (1880-1965); Purcell and Elmslie, 1913-1921. Hammons, Mark, in Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985.

5 Ibid.

6 Historic American Buildings Survey ILL-1044, 1964: “The date of the original structure is unknown….The permit lists the Babson Brothers as owners, but their name appears nowhere on the chain of title.”(p. 3)

“Original drawings (on microfilm in the Art Institute of Chicago) carry notations which indicate that another building existed on the site, and that the present structure was remodeled with the present front added.” (p. 5)

7 “Henry Babson.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Babson

8 The Frederick Law Olmsted Society. https://www.olmstedsociety.org/events/housewalk/housewalk-2010/babson-estate-service-buildings/

Although Sullivan designed the 1907-08 residence, a large part of the scheme—including the built-in and freestanding furniture—was actually executed by Elmslie, who was then working for Sullivan. In 1912 Elmslie and his firm made additions to the house, including eight pieces of furniture. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/36161/tall-clock

9 Milwaukee Art Museum,  George Mann Niedecken Archives https://mam.org/collection/archives/prairie/

10 Ibid.

It is unclear what role Niedecken played in the design of The Edison Shop, Chicago. It’s possible that his furniture manufacturing firm, established 1910, executed the furniture from the designs by Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie. The George Mann Niedecken Archives indicate that he “worked on” the Edison Shop commission.

Gebhard, David, Purcell & Elmslie, Prairie Progressive Architects, 2006, p. 127, notes that “The furniture they [Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie] designed for the interior was executed by George M. Niedecken....”

A table for one of the Edison Shops (possibly San Franciso), “executed by George Mann Niedecken,” was recently listed for sale on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Purcell-Elmslie-Monumental-Table-from-Edison-Phonograph-Room-Prairie-School-/323814086099

The Niedecken and Walbridge firm (est. 1907) are credited with the design of yet another Edison Shop, wholly or in part, in Detroit, 1915-16. https://organica.org/peniedecken1.htm

11 “Prairie Vision: The Architecture of Purcell, Feick,and Elmslie in Bismarck,” by: Sakariassen, Emily. North Dakota History. Fall 2016, Vol. 81 Issue 3, p16-31. 16p.

Other sources for George Feick, Jr. include:

George Feick, Jr. http://barbfeick.com/FeickHistory/George_Feick_Jr.htm

 Sandusky Library Historical Collections

https://sandusky.pastperfectonline.com/library/A0E9675B-D7B1-46AB-AF75-636173886281

12 Lathrop, Alan K., “The Architects,” Purcell and Elmslie, Architects, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries. https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/purcell-and-elmslie-architects

13 Ibid.

14 “William Gray Purcell.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gray_Purcell

15 Unified Vision: The Architecture and Design of the Prairie School. Accessed 12/17/2020 at http://artsmia.org/unified-vision/collection/purcell-elmslie.cfm.html

16 Ibid.

See also Organica.org, Purcell and Elmslie, “The Compleat Commission List.” Accessed 12/15/2020 at https://organica.org/pejn170.htm

17 University of Minnesota Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Purcell and Elmslie, Architects. Accessed 12/14/2020 at https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/purcell-and-elmslie-architects

See also Hammons, Mark, “Purcell and Elmslie, 1913-1921,” Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985. Accessed 12/13/2020 at https://organica.org/pewgp6.htm

18 Historic American Buildings Survey ILL-1044, index card (no date),  supplement to 1964 report

19 Historic American Buildings Survey ILL-1044, 1964, p. 7

   Online Resources / Links:

Architecture in the Spirit of Democracy: Purcell and Elmslie, research courtesy Mark Hammons. Accessed 12/12/2020 at https://organica.org/purcellandelmslie.htm

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Archives. Digitized images of Babson Brothers Store (The Edison Shop)available at https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/search/searchterm/Babson%20Brothers%20Building/field/altern/mode/exact/conn/and

Explore Chicago Collections: The place to discover the history and culture of Chicago. Accessed 12/12/2020 at https://explore.chicagocollections.org/

Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress), HABS IL-1044, 1959, data sheet. Accessed 12/12/2020 at https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/il/il0100/il0111/data/il0111data.pdf

Milwaukee Art Museum, George Mann Niedecken Archives. Accessed 12/17/2020 https://mam.org/collection/archives/prairie/

“Prairie Vision: The Architecture of Purcell, Feick,and Elmslie in Bismarck,” by: Sakariassen, Emily. North Dakota History. Fall 2016, Vol. 81 Issue 3, p16-31. 16p. Accessed 12/17/2020 at https://web-b-ebscohost-com.chipublib.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=a98fb521-cf99-496e-b86c-580ca23d7327%40pdc-v-sessmgr03

University of Minnesota Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Purcell and Elmslie, Architects. Accessed 12/14/2020 at https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/purcell-and-elmslie-architects

Hammons, Mark, Biographical Notes: William Gray Purcell (1880-1965); Purcell and Elmslie, 1913-1921., in Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985. https://organica.org/pewgp6.htm

 “The Edison Shop,” The Western Architect Vol. 19 No. 5 May 1913, no page numbers. [Click on title for archived article.] Available online at HathiTrust Digital Library.  

 The Work of Purcell and Elmslie, The Western Architect Vol. 19 No. 1 January 1913, no page numbers. [Click on title for archived article.] Available online at HathiTrust Digital Library.  

The Work of Purcell and Elmslie, The Western Architect Vol. 22 No. 5 May 1915, no page numbers. [Click on title for archived article.] Available online at HathiTrust Digital Library.  

The William Gray Purcell Papers, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries. Accessed 12/12/2020 athttps://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/8/resources/2215

 University of Minnesota Libraries online U Media Archivehttps://organica.org/pejn170_5.htm

[biblioncollection]

Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry Purcell | Frederick Bridge | Biography & Autobiography | Audiobook full unabridged | English | 1/2 Content of the video and Sections beginning time (clickable) - Chapters of the audiobook: please see First comments under this video. Brief sketches of the lives and music of 12 well-known musicians. - Summary by KevinS This is a Librivox recording. If you want to volunteer please visit https://librivox.org/ by Priceless Audiobooks

[jamesgraybooksellerworld]

340J   Christopher Simpson.  (1602/4-1669 or 1674 see below)

A Compendium of Practical Music in five parts Teaching, by a new, and easie method,Teaching, by a new, and easie method, 1. The rudiments of song. 2. The principles of composition. 3. The use of discords. 4. The form of figurate descant. 5. The contrivance of canon. Together with lessons for viols, &c. The third edition.

London : printed by M.C. for Henry Brome, at the Gun near the west-end of St. Pauls, MDCLXXVIII. [1678]                                                                                  $2,100

Octavo A- N8 {192p} 7 X 4 ¼ inches.  With frontis. portrait (A1v) of the author signed: W. Faithorne dil: et sculp:. The stated Third edition, the first was published under the title The Principles of Practical Musick (London, 1665), which became the Compendium of Practical Musick (London, 1667). This is a very clean copy And is bound in modern quarter calf.

A Roman Catholic, he fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War (1643–44) and subsequently became tutor to the son of a prominent Catholic, Sir Robert Bolles. During his life Simpson was highly regarded as a musician. As a composer, chiefly of solo and ensemble works for viol, he is noteworthy for his exploitation of the instrument’s resources and his development of variation form. His influential theoretical works were The Division-violist (1st ed., 1659; modern ed., 1955, reprinted 1998), discussing viol technique and the improvisation of descants and divisions (variations on a ground); and The Principles of Practical Musick (1665; modern ed., 1970), praised for its excellence by Henry Purcell and other contemporary composers.

The  Compendium of Practical Musick. Simpson’s instrumental works are all for viol, with or without other instruments, and vary in difficulty.

Simpson was born between 1602 and 1606, probably at Egton, Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of Christopher Sympson, a Yorkshireman, who is usually described as a cordwainer but who was also the manager of a theatre company patronised by wealthy Yorkshire Catholics.  There is a theory (put forward by Urquhart) that Christopher Simpson (junior), the musician, could have been the same Simpson (or Sampson) who was educated as a Jesuit in continental Europe and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1629. However, Simpson’s death in 1669 is at odds with the evidence that the Jesuit Simpson lived until 1674.

After the war,Simpson remained in the Bolles’ household (either in Lincolnshire, or their house in London) for the remainder of his life. His will was made on 5 May 1669 and was proved in London on 29 July 1669. It seems likely that he died at Sir John Bolles’ house in Holborn, London, or possibly at Scampton Hall.

Simpson made a small contribution to John Playford’s work A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick but is best known for his own book, The Division Viol, or the Art of Playing upon a Ground (published 1659) which is described in the lengthy title.  The second edition (published in 1665) is a parallel text in English and Latin, thus addressing both the British and continental European markets. It was a highly successful publication and continued to appear in new editions for sixty years after the death of its author. With the revival of early music during the 20th century, and renewed interest in the viol, Simpson’s book was read with renewed interest by those who sought to rediscover the “authentic” technique for playing the instrument.

The accompanying portrait of Simpson appears in The Division Viol. In the first edition, he is depicted wearing a hat but, in later editions, the picture has been modified to show him bare-headed, as here. 

    Very few of Simpson’s musical compositions appeared in print during his lifetime, except those included as examples in his books. Some of his compositions survive in manuscript form. For example, he composed two sets of fantasias entitled The Monthes and The Seasons, which both consist of one treble and two bass viol parts, with continuo. The Seasons was recorded by Hille Perl (as one of the Sirius Viols) in 2016, with extensive liner notes about the piece.

All his surviving instrumental works are for viol ensembles or for the solo viol, an instrument

about which he wrote that “a viol in the hands of an excellent violist may (no doubt) be reckon’d amongst the best of musical instruments. To play extempore to a ground is the highest perfection of it”.

Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), S3811; Krummel. p.125

  Christopher Simpson: The Division-Violist: or An Introduction to the Playing upon a Ground, printed by William Godbid, and sold by John Playford, Facsimile reprint edited with introduction by Nathalie Dolmetsch, London: J. Curwen, 1955

Percy Scholes: Oxford Companion to Music, OUP

Margaret Urquhart: Chelys Volume 21 “Was Christopher Simpson a Jesuit?”, 1992, Viola da Gamba Society Publications

C. G. Matthews and Brian Harrison (editors): The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-861366-0

A Compendium of Practical Music 340J   Christopher Simpson.  (1602/4-1669 or 1674 see below) A Compendium of Practical Music in five parts Teaching, by a new, and easie method,

[odettepurcellrpg-blog]

Introductory Post

Heyhey everyone! My names Edon, I’m twenty years old from Melbourne, Australia and so excited to plot with everybody! I’m so bad at these but I’ll give it a go haha, student nurse who wants to specialize in cosmetics, theatre and plastics, would basically love to work in a small clinic with a plastic surgeon, absolutely adore plants and nature (hence why I made Odette a botanist lmao), and also obsessed with Grimm, I know I’m a lil late but I just started now that it’s on Netflix lmao. I’m a vegan, tarot card enthusiast, work at a florist and love healing crystals <3

Anyway a bit about Odette Purcell

Odette was raised in New York City by philanthropist, Bruce Barratt, whose divorced from a former supermodel with no kids (I’m sure you get the gist).

Adopted by Bruce at two years old, Odette has no link to her biological parents. She lived a rather isolated childhood, her adoptive father was obsessed with the occult and would spend hours a day locked in his grand library reading book after book on ancient civilizations and the mystic arts. Potentially a little schizoaffective, but has never been diagnosed. 

His unusual obsession led him to disappear for weeks, whether he was in some ‘sacred jungle’ searching for the fountain of youth, or attending a conference on enchanted weapons, Odette would spend her days alone in the sky high penthouse being cared for by a nanny. Due to her adoptive father’s unusual passion, she hated having school friends over, fearful she would be labeled as a ‘freak’, excluding herself from the social scene.

While the normal teenager in the upper east side was out getting wasted on a Friday night, Odette spent her nights watching videos on the way plants chemically communicate with one another. She found out that the scent of a rose was actually a signal, warning other flora around it that it was reaching the end of its days. That the smell of freshly mowed grass, although pleasant in a nostalgic sort of way, was actually a cry for help. That some plants sleep, memorize and even learn behaviors. 

Odette began her plant collection, spending Sunday mornings at markets buying plant after plant, stocking them all over the apartment. Her adoptive father noticed the new hobby, and although it meant there was less and less room for his books, he enjoyed it. He found the plants therapeutic, found that it helped him focus and better his research. 

Odette graduated high school with impeccable grades and was accepted into Yale majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. She studied the evolution of beauty, exploring the fundamental mechanism of sexual attraction, mate choice, sexual violence and the role of aesthetic evolution. She studied virus discovery and evolution, sampling bacteria from natural environments, studying their growth, their death, the way they spread and the way they thrived. Her studies covered species interaction, human osteology, primate evolution, plant ecology, infectious diseases, evolutionary biology and the interaction between plants and people.

Not surprising enough, Odette graduated from Yale in the top of her class and began working with her professor in his lab aimed at ecology evolution and communication between humans and plants. Around this time Odette also began sexual relations with her professor/boss.

Odette was introduced to Henry Clayton through her former professor and after being impressed by her passion for plant life and dedication to research, she was offered a position on the expedition. 

Personality

Positive: Perceptive, Witty, Elegant, Detailed, Dedicated, Compassionate, Independent, Opinionated, Self-Aware. 

Negative: Emotional, Sensitive, Withdrawn, Pretentious, Envious, Perfectionist, Insecure, Haughty, Judgmental. 

Note: More can be find in her biography. 

[romanlightman001]

Henry Purcell // Composer Biography

[onlinevideoproduction]

Le Stagioni: “Within a furlong of Edinboro' town”

The Institut français is delighted to welcome for the first time in Edinburgh and in Scotland "Le Stagioni".

Biography: The ensemble Le Stagioni was created in 2017: it gathers together experienced young musicians, who all lead international careers both as soloists and with the great European early music ensembles. They are united by a common desire to use their experience in a fresh new approach to performing music on period instruments. Led by the harpsichordist Paolo Zanzu, the ensemble can vary in form and size, with vocal music as a focal point: the group's first concerts featured young French singers such as Anna Reinhold and Cyril Costanzo. The repertoire of Le Stagioni is centred around the great works of European baroque music, with a particular emphasis on Italian music, and that of the Neapolitan school.

From the 2018-2019 season onwards Le Stagioni will be in residence at the Théâtre de Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy, where they will give several concerts.

Programme:

Francesco Saverio Geminiani (1687, Lucca – 1762, Dublin) Song I, The Lass of Peaty's Mill, Andante Sonata II, Bush aboon Traquair, Andante from A Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Musick (London, 1749)

James Oswald (1710, Crail – 1769, Alderford) Barbra Allan To Dauntin Me, Slow – Gig from A Collection of curious Scots tunes (London, ca. 1742)

Turlough O'Carolan (1670, Nobber – 1738, Alderford) When she cam, ben she bobbed after models by James Oswald and William McGibbon (Glasgow, 1690 Edinburgh, 1756)

Francesco Saverio Geminiani Sonata for cello, op. V/6 in A minor, Adagio-Allegro assai-Grave-Allegro

Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695, Westminster) New Scotch Tune in G major, Z655 New Irish Tune in G major, Z646

Twas within a furlong of Edinboro' town, from The Mock Marriage after a setting by Charles McLean (c. 1712, Aberdeen – 1772, London)

Toccata and fugue in A major, ZD229

The Black Joak, as ‘tis perform'd at Dublin after an anonymous setting in The Division Violin (London, ca. 1720)

The Plaint from The Fairy Queen after an instrumental setting by John Eccles (1668 – 1735, London)

Arcangelo Corelli (1653, Fusignano – 1713, Rome) Sonata for the recorder in B-flat Major, Opus V/9 (Rome, 1700), Preludio - Giga - Adagio - Tempo di Gavotta after models by William McGibbon, Matthew Dubourg (1703 – 1767, London), Manchester Mss. (ca. 1740) & Francesco Geminiani

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685, Halle – 1759, London) _ Triosonata in B Minor, Op. 2/1, HWV 3¬¬¬86b, Andante-Allegro-Largo-Allegro

Francesco Saviano Geminiani Sonata III, The Last Time I came over the Moor from A Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Musick (London, 1749)

Performers: Liv Heym – violin Tiam Goudarzi – recorders Emilia Gliozzi – cello Paolo Zanzu – harpsichord

Event details:

“Within a furlong of Edinboro' town”: Scottish and European Art Music in the 18th century Saturday 9th March 7.00pm

Price £15 / £12 (IFE member + student, unemployed person, retired person, handicapped person) Book directly online or contact us at 0131 285 6030 or info ifecosse.org.uk

Location The Sypert Concert Room St Cecilia's Hall 50 Niddry Street Edinburgh EH1 1LG

from Institut Français Écosse http://www.ifecosse.org.uk/Le-Stagioni-Within-a-furlong-of.html via IFTTT

[biblioncollection]

Twelve Good Musicians: From John Bull to Henry Purcell | Frederick Bridge | Biography & Autobiography | Audiobook full unabridged | English | 2/2 Content of the video and Sections beginning time (clickable) - Chapters of the audiobook: please see First comments under this video. Brief sketches of the lives and music of 12 well-known musicians. - Summary by KevinS This is a Librivox recording. If you want to volunteer please visit https://librivox.org/ by Priceless Audiobooks