Purcell, Henry

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) was the most important English composer of the Baroque period. He is historically considered one of the greatest composers in Great Britain. Purcell used elements of contemporary Italian and French music in his music and he helped to create a special British Baroque style of music, the features of which can be found much later in the work of modern English composers. Although Henry Purcell died at the age of thirty-six, he was a very prolific composer and the number of his works is close to five hundred. He composed both secular music (operas, music for theater plays, instrumental compositions) and spiritual music (chants, cantatas and spiritual songs).