John Purkis (1781 – 10 April 1849), was an English organist and teacher. He was blind at birth. A child prodigy, Purkis studied with Thomas Grenville (circa 1744–1827), also blind, and the organist at the Foundling Hospital in London. [1] He became organist at St Margaret's Chapel at the age of nine, and then, aged 12, at St Olave Southwark, after a public competition and three day poll. His salary there was £30. [2]
From 1804 until his death Purkis was organist at St Clement Danes, and also (after 1825) at St Peter's Walworth. [3] He was consultant to the organ building firm Flight and Robinson during the construction of the Apollonicon a self-playing barrel organ, presented to the public for the first time in 1817. [4] Over the next 21 years he performed popular Saturday afternoon recitals on the instrument at the firm's showroom, 101, St Martin's Lane. [5] [6] At the recitals Purkis often played fantasias on opera themes that were later published as piano pieces by William Hodsoll, and these became very popular with home pianists in the 1820s. [3] Rachel Cowgill has called the Apollonicon recitals "virtually synonymous with the establishment of the public organ recital in England....the first to be held in a secular venue and run on a purely commercial basis". [6]
Purkis was also a skilled violinist and harpist. [2] With woodwind instrument maker Thomas Scott he formed the Scott & Purkis partnership to manufacture a double flageolet, taking out a patent in December 1805 for "an instrument on the flageolette principle, so constructed as a single instrument that two parts of a musical composition can be played thereon at the same time by one person". [7] A tutorial book by Purkis was published. [8] But rival William Bainbridge, inventor of the six finger-hole "improved English flageolet" in 1803, produced a more popular double flageolet, for which he was granted a patent in 1810. [9]
In 1811 Purkis went through a series of operations, performed by Sir William Adams of Exeter, that gained him some limited sight. [2] His pupils included the organist and music historian William Smith Rockstro. [10] He died, aged 68, in April 1849.
References
- ^ The Letters of Samuel Wesley, Vol. 2, ed. Philip John Olleson (University of Nottingham thesis, 2000), p. 340
- ^ a b c Andrew Freeman. 'Organs and Organists of St. Olave's, Tooley Street, Southwark', in The Musical Times, Vol. 62, No. 942 (August 1921), p. 574
- ^ a b 'Purkis, John', in Historical Dictionary of English Music ca. 1400–1958 ed. by Charles Edward McGuire, Steven E. Plank (2012), p. 246
- ^ "The Apollonicon". Mechanics Magazine. Vol. 9. Knight & Lacey. 1828. pp. 97–103.
- ^ 'Purkis, John', in A Dictionary of Musicians, ed. John S. Sainsbury, London, 1825
- ^ a b Rachel Cowgill. 'The London Apollonicon Recitals, 1817-32: A Case-Study in Bach, Mozart and Haydn Reception', in Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 123, No. 2 (1998), pp. 190-228
- ^ British patent No. 2995 (1806)
- ^ John Purkis. Scott & Purkis's Delecta Harmonia or Patent Double-Flageolet, a complete Tutor for the above Instrument (London, c. 1806)
- ^ Waterhouse, William (1 January 1999). "The Double Flageolet - Made in England". The Galpin Society Journal. 52: 172–182. doi: 10.2307/842521. JSTOR 842521.
- ^ Rosemary Williamson. 'Rockstro [Rackstraw], W(illiam) S(mith)', in Grove Music Online (2001)