Dismantle The Contraption

Let’s talk about Henry Purcell. 

Born in 1659, Purcell is widely regarded as one of the greatest English composers, or so Wikipedia says. Although there are other elements in his writing, he worked primarily in a very English Baroque style. Think harpsichords, strings, hovering soprano vocals. He composed operas, music for plays, and sacred music. 

He didn’t write any pop songs, although a number of his compositions are short enough to fit on a single side of a 45. He would have had no trouble getting on the radio in the late 17th century. 

I’m trying to create a bit of context here, in lieu of earning overnight credentials as a scholar of English classical music. Even though I can’t say why or how, I do hear echoes of Purcell in “Put Away Forbidden Playthings,” a song Elvis Costello was commissioned to write for a concert marking the 300th anniversary of Purcell’s death, in 1995. 

That concert focused on Purcell’s fantasias, and although there’s no easily-fetched setlist of the pieces performed at that concert, these are pieces primarily written for viols, an early version of the violin with a bigger body and thus greater resonance to the sound. That’s right, they’re thicc violins. Swol, if you will. 

In accordance with the evening’s theme, the original incarnation of “Put Away Forbidden Playthings” was arranged for a viol group and performed by Fretwork along with countertenor Michael Chance. Again, I’m no classical music scholar so I was surprised at first to hear that “countertenor” effectively sounds like a female voice, although sung by a male. It’s gorgeous, but due to my own ignorance, I wasn’t expecting it. It has its own timbre that’s aching but masculine at the same time.

To hear how EC adapts the instrumentation and mood of Purcell’s fantasias into his own composition, listen to this fantasia first, and then the 1995 incarnation of “Put Away Forbidden Playthings,” as featured on Fretwork’s 1997 album Sit Fast. 

In 2006, “Put Away Forbidden Playthings” appeared on My Flame Burns Blue, a collection of live recordings of songs performed in July 2004 with Steve Nieve and the Metropol Orkest at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. Working with the Metropol Orkest gave Costello access to a much broader palette in terms of instrumentation, so he was able to re-orchestrate the piece and adapt it for his own vocal. 

Again, there’s a really interesting process to examine here as the song evolves from its original form for viol and into a much more robust orchestration. Naturally, there’s also an evolution from Chance’s countertenor to EC’s baritone/tenor vocal. The oboes in the 2004 version really underscore some of the more sinister elements in the original arrangement, and the horns do a good job of effectively “announcing” the beginning of Costello’s vocal. 

Melodically, to me this is closer to EC’s writing on his 2003 album North, where he’s connecting ideas together around his lyric rather than trying to adhere to the verse/chorus/bridge structure of a traditional pop song. He returns to the “put away forbidden playthings” phrase, but each time the melody and range is different; writing this way makes the song feel almost like a dramatic monologue.