Complete Catches

Purcell began writing catches around 1680 and continued to do so, as convivial occasion demanded, throughout his career. They were reprinted with equal regularity during the eighteenth century and rendered themselves harmless by respectable Victorians like Rimbault. (This bowdlerization was a habit which the editor of the Purcell Society edition found impossible to kick even as late as the 1920s.)

The present edition restores all the verses Purcell set; corrects the many musical errors which crept in through frequent reprinting and reliance on bad sources. Since the catch was the means of self-expression for the liberated middle class drinking man, it is not surprising that it revolved around three subjects: sex, drink and politics. Women are to be seduced or if you’re married to them, cursed; when they are unwilling they are cast aside in favour of drink, whose communal consciousness-expanding and laziness-inducing properties are most frequently praised. The politics are mainly jingoistic but in one case – Who goes there? – it deals with the corruption of drunken officials.

It seems unlikely that Purcell’s catches were ever sung successfully while under the influence; the melodic lines are too involved and their combination needs to be very carefully balanced and pointed so that the story line is made clear.

Michael Nyman