Forty Songs. Complete in One Volume. - Low

By Henry Purcell

Awesome book for young singers and old alike. Never order from this site if you have a time crunch, you won't get your music on time

This is one of the many collections of well-selected songs from the works of individual composers put together by Sergius Kagen. As always, text translations are provided where needed (one piece in this book has Latin text). Notes and text are well laid out and highly readable, and tempo...

and phrasing are judiciously marked, never overdone, in a manner well suited to performers of at least intermediate skill. The written-out ornamentation is very clearly presented and may be instructive to those who are less familiar with Purcell's style, or Baroque music in general. In all, this book, may prove to be of value to many students and teachers of voice.

This anthology is one of the more popular Purcell collections in use in music departments throughout the US. I like the selection as it effectively displays the various facets of Purcell’s art. Monodies making use of Purcell’s expressive, richly ornamented recitative and Italianate airs with lots of coloratura...

appear next to simpler items in the popular style of Purcell’s day. The accompaniments are both technically approachable and stylistically apt for performance on the modern piano.

I am an alto with a very strong lower register. I bought this book with the intention of finding a good piece for a recent audition. I was very disappointed to discover that even though the book claims to be transposed for a lower voice, the pieces routinely go as...

high as F and few spend any time near or below middle C. While technically, I can sing most of the pieces, they do not make appealing use of my alto range. From my point of view, these all seem to be written/transposed for an average soprano.