On Jan 4, 2008, at 5:37 AM, Ron Fletcher wrote: > He has recently discovered a book of 'bawdy drinking-songs' written > by Henry > Purcell, a composer we would not readily associate with this type > of music.
Of course we would. Purcell is known for his bawdy catches, they've been performed and recorded for decades. I'm looking right now at a 1979 LP by the Deller Consort with songs like "Sir Walter enjoying his damsel" and "The Miller's daughter" on one side and a devotional anthem on the other. Maurice Bevan wrote on the back cover, "Many catches have texts of considerable bawdiness, and when the Purcell Society first published them they felt obliged to weald the censor's pen. However, in this recording we have restored the original texts, although we have been guided by the merits of the music rather than by the lewdness of the words -- though often the two go together!" I'm certainly glad they weren't guided by the lewdness of the words. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
