Purcell’s style is best summed up by W. S. Gilbert’s famous line from H.M.S. Pinafore: “But in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations, he remains an Englishman.” His music is a synthesis of the French courtly style and the latest innovations from Italy, but strongly underpinned by English traditions dating back to the 16th century. Born in London in 1659, Purcell was the most resourceful composer of his generation, one of the greatest ever to set the English language: equally at home in the church, court, theatre, chamber—even the tavern. His command of large-scale forces in ceremonial works—like the ode Hail, bright Cecilia (1692)—laid the groundwork for Handel’s English choral style. He was fond of the Italian “ground bass” (a short, repeated pattern in the bass), over which he built many of his finest songs and instrumental pieces. Purcell’s most widely admired work today is the miniature opera Dido and Aeneas (c. 1682). With echoes of the English court masque, Lully’s theatrical music for Louis XIV, and Italian public opera, it culminates in Dido’s ground-bass aria “When I am laid in earth”—one of the most moving of all operatic laments. Purcell’s refined music for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695 was reused just eight months later for his own burial service.