Henry Purcell

This rather lame article*, accidentally makes a very good point about Purcell:

Purcell was no little-Englander – in fact no English composer has been more profoundly European. He [followed] every trend from France and Italy, because – as John Dryden said in his preface to Purcell’s score of Diocletian – “English music was now learning Italian which is its best Master, and studying a little of the French Air, to give it more of the Gayety and Fashion.”

English music dried up with the death of Purcell and didn't see anything even remotely like his glory again until the late 19th century. The reason why this happened is displayed in the paragraph above. In those days, Italy was the place. If you wanted to display taste in literature, art or music, you needed to learn it from Italy. Even as Germany superseded Italy as the nation producing the greatest musical geniuses, those German geniuses continued to learn the Italian lessons.

It was not unimportant that Vienna was close to Italy.

The thing that did England in was the reformation. As it took hold and Catholic culture was slowly expunged from England, the quality of music and literature plunged. It took a long time to replace. In music, it took until the late 19th century.

* Why is the article lame? Well, there is this sort of thing:

I’m know I’m out on a limb here. Henry Purcell has never been a popular composer ...

That is staggering ignorance.