The Purcell Society

Henry Purcell: Secular Songs for Solo Voice, edited by Margaret Laurie (Purcell Society Edition Vol. 25)

Purcell Society Edition Volume 25 contains the following songs:

A thousand sev’ral ways (Z. 359)
Ah! cruel nymph (Z. 352)
Ah! how pleasant (Z. 353)
Amidst the shades (Z. 355)
Amintas to my grief I see (Z. 356)
Amintor, heedless of his flocks (Z. 357)
Ask me to love (Z. 358)
Bacchus is a pow’r divine (Z. 360)
Beneath a dark and melancholy grove (Sappho’s complaint) (Z. 461)
Beware, poor shepherds (The caution) (Z. 361)
Cease, anxious world (Z. 362)
Celia’s fond (Z. 364)
Cupid, the slyest rogue alive (Z. 367)
Draw near, you lovers (Z. 462)
Farewell, all joys! (Z. 368)
Farewell, ye rocks (The storm) (Z. 463)
Fly swift, ye hours (Z. 369)
From silent shades (Bess of Bedlam) (Z. 370)
Gentle shepherds (A pastoral elegy on the death of Mr. John Playford) (Z. 464)
He himself courts (Z. 372)
Hears not my Phillis (The knotting song) (Z. 371)
High on a throne (Ode on the Queen) (version A and B) (Z. 465)
How delightful’s the life (Z. 373)
How I sigh (Z. 374)
I came, I saw (The thraldom) (Z. 375)
I lov’d fair Celia (Z. 381)
I love and I must (Bell Barr) (Z. 382)
I resolve against cringing (Z. 386)
I take no pleasure (Z. 388)
If grief has any pow’r (Z. 378)
If music be the food of love (1st setting). Version A (Z.379A)
If music be the food of love (1st setting). Version B (Z.379B)
Corinna is divinely fair (Z. 365)
If music be the food of love (2nd setting) (Z.379C)
If pray’rs and tears (Sighs for our late sovereign King Charles the Second) (Z. 380)
In Cloris all soft charms agree (Z. 384)
In vain we dissemble (Z. 385)
Incassum, Lesbia (The Queen’s Epicedium) (Z.383)
Let each gallant heart (Z. 390)
Let formal lovers (Z. 391)
Let us, kind Lesbia (Z. 466)
Love arms himself (Z. 392)
Love is now become a trade (Z. 393)
Love, thou can’st hear (Z. 396)
Lovely Albina (Z. 394)
Love’s pow’r in my heart (Z. 395)
Musing on cares (Z. 467)
My heart, whenever you appear (Z. 399)
No, to what purpose (The concealment) (Z. 468)
Not all my torments (Z. 400)
O solitude, my sweetest choice (Z. 406)
Oh fair Cedaria (Z. 402)
Olinda in the shades unseen (Z. 404)
On the brow of Richmond Hill) (Z. 405)
Pastora’s beauties when unblown (Z. 407)
Phillis, I can ne’er forgive it (Z. 408)
Phillis, talk no more (Z. 409)
Pious Celinda (Z. 410)
Rashly I swore (Z. 411)
Sawney is a bonny lad (Scotch song) (Z. 412)
Scarce had the rising sun (Z. 469)
See how the fading glories (Z. 470)
She loves and she confesses too (Z. 413)
She that would gain a faithful lover (Z. 414)
She, who my poor heart possesses (Z. 415)
Since one poor view (Z. 416)
Since the pox, or the plague (Z. 471)
Spite of the godhead (Z. 417)
Sylvia now your scorn give over (Z. 420)
Sylvia, ʼtis true you’re fair (Z. 512)
The fatal hour (Z. 421)
They say you’re angry (The rich rival) (Z. 422)
This poet sings (Anacreon’s defeat) (Z. 423)
Through mournful shades (Z. 424)
Urge me no more (Z. 426)
What a sad fate. Version A (Z. 428A)
What a sad fate. Version B (Z. 428B)
What hope for us remains (On the death of his worthy friend Mr. Matthew Locke) (Z. 472)
When first my shepherdess and I (Z. 431)
When her languishing eyes (Z. 432)
When my Aemelia (Acmelia) smiles (Z. 434)
When Strephon found (Z. 435)
While Thirsis, wrapp’d (A pastoral coronation song) (Z. 437)
Whilst Cynthia sang (Z. 438)
Who but a slave (Z. 440)
Who can behold Florella’s charms (Z. 441)
Ye happy swains (Z. 443)
Young Thirsis’ fate (Z. 473)

Appendix A: Arrangements

Turn then thine eyes (Z. 425)
What can we (Z. 429)
Leave these useless arts (Z. 389)

Appendix B: Mock songs

When first Amintas (Z. 430)
Oh! how happy’s he (The loyal delights of a contented mind) (Z. 403)
Honours may crown (The triumphs of a conquering lover) (Z. M627/21))
No watch, dear Celia (Z. 401)
We now, my Thyrsis (Z. 427)
I envy not a monarch’s fate (Z. 376)

Appendix C: Incomplete songs

I fain would be free (Z. 377)
Ah! what pains (Z. 354)

Appendix D: Songs of uncertain authorship

When Thirsis did the splendid eye (Z. 436)
When I a lover (Z. 433)
Sweet tyranness (Z. S70)
I saw that you were grown so high (Z.387)
More love or more disdain (Z. 397)
Sweet, be no longer sad (Z. 418)
Cease, O my sad soul (Z. 363)
How peaceful the days are (Z. D133)
Why so serious? (Z. 442)
Aaron thus propos’d to Moses (Z. 351 )
Stripp’d of their green (Z. 444)
A choir of bright beauties

Publisher: Novello & Co. (now Wise Music)
Publication date: 1985

The score is available to purchase from Novello & Co. in paperback.

Note about the edition:

This edition supersedes the original Purcell Society Edition Vol. 25, Secular songs and cantatas for a single voice, edited by Arthur Somervell and published by Novello & Co. in 1928.