PURCELL’S—NOT LOCKE’S—MUSIC TO “MACBETH.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5010, 14 April 1877, Page 3

PURCELL’S—NOT LOCKE’S—MUSIC TO “MACBETH.”

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES._ Snt, Your numerous musical readers will doubtless be pleased and surprised to know that Purcell, one of the greatest of English musicians, is the composer of what is very generally and erroneously known as Mattthew Locke’s celebrated music to “ Macbeth.” I append the exact words correcting this venerable error, extracted from a paper read by W. H. Gumming, on Purcell, before the Musical Association, London, on Monday, 4th December, 1876. He says “The Civil Wars and the Protectorate had destroyed organs, music books, and dispersed and banished choirs so effectually, that at the restoration of Charles, music had to be composed for men’s voices only; or if soprano could not be dispensed with, they were played on cornets, for there ■were no treble boys capable of singing. Dramatic music there was none ; it is true Locke had attempted something in that line; but the very piece on which his fame has been chiefly sustained was really not his at all, but the composition of Henry Purcell when a youth. I refer to the well-known ‘ Macbeth’ music.”

As I have always been charmed with the words and music, from the striking analogy between their sense and sound, I venture to encroach thus far on your space, feeling assured that you will assist me (in commercial parlance) in restoring valuable goods to the rightful owner.—l am, &c., Heney J. Goodman. Lambton-quay, Wellington.