Purcell

John F. Runciman (1866-1916) was the author of Old Scores and New Readings (1901), Wagner (1905), Haydn (1908), Purcell (1909) and Richard Wagner (1913). "We once had a glorious school of composers. It departed, with no sunset splendour on it, nor even the comfortable ripe tints of autumn. The sun of the young morning shone on its close; the dews of dawn gleam for ever on the last music; the freshness and purity of the air of early morning linger about it. It closed with Purcell, and it is no hyperbole to say the note that distinguishes Purcell's music from all other music in the world is the note of spring freshness. The dewy sweetness of the morning air is in it, and the fragrance of spring flowers."