Orpheus Britannicus is a collection of song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s by Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

, published posthumously in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in two volumes, the first in 1698 and the second in 1702. In the preface to the first volume, Henry Playford

Henry Playford

Henry Playford was an English music publisher, the younger son and only known surviving child of John Playford, with whom he entered business. He lived in Arundel Street in London and had a shop near Temple Church 1685–1695 then in Temple Change 1695–1704 and finally in Middle Temple Gate in 1706...

, the printer of the volume and the son of the famous John Playford

John Playford

John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...

, extolls Purcell's skill as setter of English texts.

The portrait on the frontispiece was based on John Closterman

John Closterman

John Closterman , portrait-painter, born in Osnabrück, the son of an artist, who taught him the rudiments of design.-Career:...

's portrait of Purcell, currently in the National Portrait Gallery.

The first publication of a section of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas

Dido and Aeneas

Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...

 was the air "Ah! Belinda" in Orpheus Britannicus, transposed up one step, from C to D.

Henry Hall

Henry Hall

Henry Hall may refer to:In politics and government:* Henry Hall, 4th Viscount Gage , British peer* Henry C. Hall , attorney and member of the Interstate Commerce Commission appointed by President Wilson...

, who had studied composition with Purcell under John Blow

John Blow

John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...

, wrote the dedicatory poems at the beginning of each volume, (1698 and 1702) and also wrote one for Blow's Amphion Anglicus.

The later 1706 London printing of Orpheus Britannicus by William Pearson

William Pearson

William Pearson may refer to:* William Pearson , English astronomer who helped found the Royal Astronomical Society* Charles William Pearson , pioneer Anglican missionary in Uganda...

 utilized a new style of music printing to great success, where the notehead was in one piece with the background staff.

John Blow's Amphion Anglicus (1700), a collection of Blow's songs, excerpts from odes, and chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, was published by subscription, after Orpheus Britannicus success, and even shows a certain symmetry in title.

A later engraver, Cole Benjamin (fl 1740–1760), printed as Orpheus Britannicus a seemingly unrelated set of engravings which he had made originally for The New Universal Magazine (1751–9).

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, working with Peter Pears

Peter Pears

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....

,
realized and edited a number of songs from Orpheus Britannicus for both solo singer with piano and solo singer with orchestra.