Editing Henry Purcell (section)

===Early Career===
Purcell is said to have been composing at nine years old, but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670, when he was eleven.{{sfn|Zimmerman|1967|p=29}} The dates for his compositions are often uncertain, despite considerable research.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Charteris |first1=Richard |title=Newly Discovered Sources of Music by Henry Purcell |journal=Music & Letters |date=February 1994 |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=16–32 |doi=10.1093/ml/75.1.16 |jstor=737241 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/737241 |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref> It is assumed that the three-part song ''Sweet tyranness, I now resign'' was written by him as a child.{{sfn|Westrup|1975|p=8}} After Humfrey's death, Purcell continued his studies under [[John Blow]]. He attended [[Westminster School]] and in 1676 was appointed copyist at Westminster Abbey.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=658}} Henry Purcell's earliest [[anthem]], ''Lord, who can tell'', was composed in 1678. It is a [[Psalms|psalm]] that is prescribed for Christmas Day and also to be read at morning prayer on the fourth day of the month.{{sfn|Zimmerman|1967|p=65}}

[[File:Henry Purcell - When on my sick bed I languish. (BL Add MS 30930 f. 6v).jpg|thumb|left|Purcell's manuscript copy of ''When on my sick bed I languish'' ({{circa|1680}})]]
In 1679, he wrote songs for [[John Playford]]'s ''Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues'' and an anthem, the name of which is unknown, for the Chapel Royal. From an extant letter written by Thomas Purcell we learn that this anthem was composed for the exceptionally fine voice of the Rev. [[John Gostling]], then at [[Canterbury]], but afterwards a gentleman of His Majesty's Chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for Gostling's extraordinary [[basso profondo]] voice, which is known to have had a [[Vocal range|range]] of at least two full [[octave]]s, from D below the [[Clef|bass staff]] to the D above it. The dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known; perhaps the most notable example is the anthem ''They that go down to the sea in ships.'' In gratitude for the providential escape of King Charles II from shipwreck, Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses from the [[Psalms]] in the form of an anthem and requested Purcell to set them to music. The challenging work opens with a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostling's range, beginning on the upper D and descending two octaves to the lower.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=658}}