Sound the Trumpet - Henry Purcell

Filmed live from the London International Festival of Early Music 2021. Mezzo-sopranos Rebecca Leggett and Elisabeth Paul take over this famous (traditionally countertenor) duet, with artistic director Toby Ward (chamber organ), Richard Gowers (harpsichord) and Rachel Kay (cello). Arguably the most famous movement from Purcell’s 1694 Ode for Queen Mary’s Birthday: Come Ye Sons of Art, Sound the Trumpet involves no trumpets at all, but the singers imitating trumpets underpinned by one of the most famous and lively modulating ground bass patterns in the repertoire. The text is attributed to Nahum Tate, poet laureate at the end of the 17th century, who is remembered for writing the Christmas carol, ’While Shepherds watched’.