Englishman Henry Purcell wrote this famous piece of music in the summer of 1680, when he was a mere twenty years old. I understand that fantasies were rather a somber form. But what I love about this composition happens in the latter part when a suddenly sunny burst of melody breaks through, then resolves back into the original theme. To me, that sunburst is the irrepressible twenty-year old breaking out in Henry Purcell, because, after all, it was summer!
This is not my favorite performance of this piece. That would be a version by the London Chamber Orchestra but I can't find it on youtube. What I appreciate about this one is how the visual allows you to follow all the different variations that appear and disappear in this luminous piece of music.
There is a charming mystical idea that Creation began as an original note sung into existence from who knows where, and that all of evolution thereafter is a set of variations upon that original theme. Purcell's piece of music is like a playful meditation upon this idea, of which he presumably was aware. Enjoy!
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