PURCELL

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695, was an English composer. He incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions and his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English (if not European) composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar. Purcell died in 1695 at his home in Dean's Yard, Westminster, at the height of his career. He is believed to have been 35 or 36 years old at the time. The cause of his death is unclear: one theory is that he caught a chill after returning home late from the theatre, drunk, to find that his wife had locked him out. Another is that he succumbed to bad chocolate.