The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell by Rebecca Herissone, ed. (review)

This is the first successful attempt to chronicle and discuss all significant sources for and writings about the work of the composer Henry Purcell (1659–1695). Over the last 25 years understanding of Purcell and his cultural environment has been revolutionized; and much of that change has been driven not by musicologists but by cultural historians and scholars of literature and theater.

This impeccably edited addition to the range of Ashgate Research Companions opens with the editor, Rebecca Herissone, presenting an overview of current research in the field and of the book’s contents; there follow seven extended chapters by well-chosen experts, an index of Purcell’s works, a comprehensive general index, and a bibliography. The remarkable scope of this bibliography is consistent with the aims spelt out by the editor: the book “concentrates on seven over-arching themes detectable in research involving or pertinent to Purcell, with the intention of assessing the impact of the scholarship on current understanding of the composer, and the potential application of such research in future projects” (5).

The chapter on theater culture is perhaps the one with the most straightforward relevance for most readers of Restoration. Andrew Pinnock presents trenchant discussions of theatrical reference tools, the Restoration theatre as commercial venture and as physical space, of music’s role, and of prospects for future research. However, a deeper look shows that this book is packed with ideas and material that impinge on, or are derived from, disciplines other than musicology.

The judicious balance between interdisciplinary richness and conceptual unity is especially demonstrated in Robert Thompson’s “Sources and Transmission.” In a chapter totaling 51 pages, Thompson shows how Purcell’s autograph manuscripts have been transformed “from everyday working material to precious cultural artefacts” (13), and he traces the origins and survival of important non-autograph sources. These strongly framed historical accounts are a springboard for a comprehensive discussion of codicology and methodologies. He embraces the purposes for which manuscript volumes were assembled, the study of paper-types and handwriting, methods of collation and binding, and the ways in which composers and copyists assembled scores and parts, be they for performance, for reference, or for teaching. And he is unstinting in acknowledging his debt to others. Indeed, one of the most notable characteristics of Purcellian revisionism is its dependence on alliances formal and informal between scholars from distinct yet cognate disciplines.

Musicology has tended to be slower than literary studies in drawing on such breadth of thought and practice and in recognizing the value of open collaboration. Even worse, Purcell research has been one of musicology’s dawdlers, for, as Curtis Price pointed out in 1995, at that time it “lag[ged] behind that into the music of other Baroque composers of similar stature” (2).

The profiles of the contributors, as well as the book’s contents, suggest that, especially over the last 20 years, Purcell research has been quite successful at playing catch-up; and that success is rooted partly in collaboration. For example, Robert Thompson’s earlier research has involved forensic examination of the physical details of 17th-century manuscript sources; and much of his work on Purcell has been undertaken in conjunction with the American musicologist Robert Shay. Andrew Pinnock’s remarkably wide background includes making public policy in the arts, writing about cultural economy, and advising on opera production. And in musicology he is well known for his engaging and often iconoclastic work with the English musicologist, Bruce Wood.

This research companion’s list of chapter headings is consistent with that targeted eclecticism. Thompson on “Sources and Transmission” is followed by Alan Howard on “Understanding Creativity,” Stephen Rose on “Performance Practices,” Andrew Pinnock on “Theatre Culture,” Andrew R. Walkling on “Politics, Occasions and Texts,” Amanda Eubanks Winkler on “Society and Disorder,” and the editor, Rebecca Herissone, on “Performance History and Reception.” The standard of these chapters is consistently high, each one fulfills the volume’s aims, and I find it significant that...