Английская Википедия:Fairest Isle
Шаблон:Use British English Шаблон:Use dmy dates "Fairest Isle" is one of the best-regarded songs by the 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell, a setting of words by John Dryden. It first appeared as a soprano solo in their semi-opera King Arthur (1691), where it is sung by the goddess Venus in praise of the island of Britain as the home of Love. It has since frequently been performed separately as a concert piece by both sopranos and countertenors.
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Music and lyric
"Fairest Isle" forms part of a sequence of songs, dramatically somewhat unconnected, which form the masque in act 5 of King Arthur.[1] It is sung by Venus, a soprano part, and takes the form of a minuetШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn in which, according to Grove, the "noble melody is supported by richly dissonant harmony".[2] Being in triple time it might have seemed ill-assorted with Dryden's lyrics, which are in duple metre, but for Purcell's art in reconciling the different metres. At the time this was a quite common practice for English composers, necessitated by the dominance of duple metre in 17th-century English poetry.[3] An instrumental arrangement of "Fairest Isle" is preserved in Purcell's Ayres for the Theatre and presumably was intended to be played at some point in King Arthur, but precisely where is not known.Шаблон:Sfn
Reception
In the general neglect which befell most of Purcell's secular music in the century after his death in 1695, "Fairest Isle" was one of a small number of patriotic songs by him – others include "Genius of England", "Britons, Strike Home!" and "Let the Soldiers Rejoice" – which maintained a regular presence on the stage and in the concert hall.[4] Charles Wesley's hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" was first sung to Purcell's music for "Fairest Isle", and in places echoes its lyrics.[5] In 1770, when David Garrick staged a version of King Arthur deprived of many of Purcell's songs, particularly those in the act 5 masque, "Fairest Isle" survived the cuts.[6] Charles Burney, in the third volume of his General History of Music (1789), wrote that "This is one of the few airs that time has not the power to injure. It is of all ages and countries."[7] Its popularity nevertheless waned from the mid-19th century until the early 20th.Шаблон:Sfn Among those those who revived its reputation were Jack Westrup, who wrote of it as a "spacious tune" that expressed an unostentatious "patriotism of the spirit" rather than the patriotism of banners and bugles,[8] and Robert T. White, who considered it one of the greatest songs in the whole of the old English repertoire.[9] It is now considered by many to be Purcell's greatest song,Шаблон:Sfn and has been lauded as a "sublime soprano solo"Шаблон:Sfn of "the most tender poise and elegant gravity".Шаблон:Sfn Its lyric has been called one of the most famous in the English language.[10] In 1995, the 300th anniversary of Purcell's death, the BBC launched a year-long festival of British music under the title "Fairest Isle". It was ushered in by a radio play, Steven Wyatt's Fairest Isle, a documentary drama about the writing and first production of King Arthur in which the eponymous song figured repeatedly.Шаблон:Sfn Singers who have recorded "Fairest Isle" include Nancy Argenta, Catherine Bott, James Bowman, April Cantelo, Alfred Deller, Paul Esswood, Heather Harper, Yvonne Kenny, Felicity Lott, Andreas Scholl, and Maggie Teyte.[11]
Footnotes
References
External links
Шаблон:Henry Purcell Шаблон:Portal bar Шаблон:Authority control
- Английская Википедия
- Arias in English
- Soprano arias
- Compositions by Henry Purcell
- Compositions in B-flat major
- Opera excerpts
- Works by John Dryden
- British patriotic songs
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- Википедия
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