On this day in 1695, organist and Baroque composer, Henry Purcell, died at his home in Dean’s Yard, Westminster at the age of 35 or 36. Born on or about 10 September 1659 in St Ann’s Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music, a style of European classical music extending from about 1600 to 1750. This era begins after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era. The word “baroque” came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon and is associated with composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi and Purcell. Most importantly to me, it was during this period that opera became established as a musical genre. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (c. 1689) is, in my opinion, the first important English opera, and is still performed. Purcell had a direct influence on rock and roll. Apparently, both Pete Townshend of The Who and Queen, list Purcell’s music as an influence on their own.
The Final Footprint – Purcell is entombed in Westminster Abbey near the organ in the North Choir Aisle. His epitaph reads: “Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.” A bronze memorial sculpture by Glynn Williams, The Flowering of the English Baroque, in tribute to Purcell was installed in a park on Victoria St,. Westminster. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
#RIP #OTD in 2002 pianist, vocalist (“Swingin’ the Boogie”, “Out of the Blue”, “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You”) composer, “Queen of the Boogie” Hadda Brooks died at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles after open-heart surgery aged 86. Cremated remains scattered
On this day in 2017, actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Cassidy died of liver failure in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 67. Born David Bruce Cassidy on April 12, 1950 in Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family, which led to his becoming one of popular culture’s teen idols and superstar pop singers of the 1970s. He later had a career in both acting and music.
Cassidy’s first wife was actress Kay Lenz, whom he married on April 3, 1977, and divorced on December 28, 1983. Cassidy soon married his second wife, horse breeder Meryl Tanz, in 1984. They met in 1974 at a horse sale in Lexington, Kentucky. This marriage ended in divorce in 1985. Cassidy married Sue Shifrin on March 30, 1991, his third and her second marriage. In August 2013, Cassidy’s Los Angeles publicist confirmed that the couple had separated, with Shifrin filing for divorce in February 2014.
The Final Footprint
His cremated remains were scattered.
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