Purcell and the Reception of Lully's ‘Scocca pur’ (LWV 76/3) in England

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the English reception of an Italian song by Lully, ‘Scocca pur tutti tuoi strali’ (LWV 76/3), and its importance for English music of the late seventeenth century. In English sources, this song exists in arrangements for keyboard, and for two violins and bass. It was also the source of a five-bar bass formula used variously in the 1680s. Purcell, for example, clearly used the bass, or an adapted version of it, as an ostinato pattern in three instances. ‘Scocca pur’ is the clearest example of a model composition in Italian style that was known to English musicians in the late seventeenth century. By implication, Italian-style compositional practice was developed from a limited number of models, which were adapted freely, disseminated aurally, and modified to suit native tastes and practices.