Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell was an English composer and organist, probably born in Westminster in 1659. He was trained in the musical world of the Chapel Royal and worked while young as a music copyist and organ tuner. In 1679 John Blow relinquished the post of organist of Westminster Abbey in Purcell’s favor. Purcell later became an organist of the Chapel Royal and, in 1683, keeper of the king’s instruments. His music encompassed Anglican anthems and services, royal and ceremonial works, songs, theatre music, and instrumental compositions; Dido and Aeneas and the music for Queen Mary II’s funeral remain among his best-known works.

Purcell did not write WESTMINSTER ABBEY as a hymn tune for this text. Its melody comes from the concluding alleluias of his anthem O God, thou art my God, an early work dated about 1680–1682. Ernest Hawkins adapted the passage as a metrical tune in 1842, and it appeared under the name BELVILLE in Vincent Novello’s The Psalmist in 1843. The tune was later known as WESTMINSTER ABBEY, recalling the institution where Purcell served and where he was buried after his death in 1695.