ABSTRACT
Purcell turned 30 in 1689. By then his professional reputation had been established. He was a leading court and church composer, an occasional supplier of commercial theatre music and an energetic networker, assiduously cultivating amateur contacts in an effort to build his teaching practice (this business-orientated sociability was misconstrued by his early biographers: meetings sometimes took place in taverns). Yet he was very far from famous. apart from the court insiders present when royal odes and welcome songs were performed, only people with specific musical interests were likely to have heard of him.
