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Hyperion Records

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Track(s) taken from CDA66720
This song first appeared in Henry Playford’s first book of The Theatre of Music in 1685. In the two verses the poet comments on the hopelessness of man’s trying to conceal his natural impulse to fall in love: whatever our attempts ‘To stifle our flame and check our desire’, there is no ‘concealing of fire’. Purcell’s melody is, as ever, beautifully crafted, combining tuneful elegance with melodic inventiveness, and the bass line is also well worth attention, rising inexorably for the first eight bars and falling even further during the next phrase. Those two elements are neatly combined in contrary motion between the voice and continuo at ‘When frowning the courtship we seem to despise’.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Recording details: March 1994
Orford Church, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Ben Turner
Engineered by Philip Hobbs
Release date: May 1994
Total duration: 2 minutes 14 seconds

In vain we dissemble, Z385
composer
The Theatre of Music I, 1685
author of text
Other albums featuring this work
Cover of 'Purcell: The complete secular solo songs' (CDS44161/3)
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