Description

Most of the distinctive Purcell realisations by Benjamin Britten, vocal parts edited by Peter Pears, have been out of print for some years. This new edition collects 45 pieces for medium/low voice. Includes 9 songs from Harmonia Sacra, 24 solo songs and six duets from Orpheus Britannicus, “The Queen’s Epicedium,” and selections from Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen.

Contents

1. ‘Tis holiday
2. A Morning Hymn
3. Ah, Belinda! I am prest with torment
4. Alleluia
5. But ere we this perform
6. Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa
7. Evening Hymn
8. Fairest Isle
9. Fear no danger to ensue
10. Hark the ech’ing air
11. How blest are shepherds
12. I attempt from love’s sickness
13. I spy Celia
14. I take no pleasure
15. I’ll sail upon the Dog-star
16. If music be the food of love (1st version)
17. If music be the food of love (3rd version)
18. In the black dismal dungeon of despair
19. Job’s Curse
20. Let sullen discord smile
21. Lord, what is man
22. Lost is my quiet
23. Mad Bess
24. Man is for the woman made
25. Music for a while
26. No, resistance is but vain
27. Not all my torments
28. On the brow of Richmond Hill
29. Pious Celinda
30. Saul and the Witch at Endor
31. Shepherd, leave decoying
32. So when the glittering Queen of Night
33. Sound fame thy brazen trumpet
34. Sound the trumpet
35. Sweeter than roses
36. Take not a woman’s anger ill
37. The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation
38. The Queen’s Epicedium
39. There’s not a swain of the plain
40. Thou tun’st this world
41. Turn then thine eyes
42. We sing to him
43. What can we poor females do?
44. When I am laid in earth
45. Why should men quarrel?